Undecipherable
by Infinity Unit 13
Summary: (Rewrite of The Odd One, Activated) Who was Jaune Arc? A Beacon Student? A friend? Relationships are questioned when one's true face becomes undecipherable. So, who was he? A Huntsman? Or a Division Agent?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: How's everyone doing? I'm back and this is the rewrite I promised you! So, I know that this is really a bit of a dick move for me, I know, I'm aware. But with how the original story was going, it was getting really hard to really go into the plot that I had originally planned out, so I decided that the best course of action was to redo it. And so, here we are.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Atlas; City of Stratos: Alleyway...**

Jaune shivered, alone in a back alley, the bitter cold of winter washing over him, and covering him in a thin layer of snow and near-frozen water. His arms were wrapped tightly around his own body, but they did little to protect him from the wind. He looked down at his clothing; a simple black zip-up sweater, a pair of torn jeans, and a pair of black sneakers.

They were useless in this weather.

Jaune's sapphire blue eyes looked out of the alley way and out to the street, where people walked on the sidewalks, comfortable in their warm winter jackets and heavy boots. A shiver shook his body once again, and he came to a conclusion.

If he didn't do something, the cold would kill him.

Using part of what little strength remained in his body, he forced himself to his feet, using the brick wall to steady himself. He stumbled forwards, his legs weak, his body numb, and his mind blurred. Each step he took seemed to require all of his strength, and after a few tiring minutes, Jaune found himself out in the open. The wind was stronger here, and Jaune was barely able to stand the cold. The people who passed him did not even bother to look his way.

"T-Typical..." Jaune murmured, his voice weak. He looked around at the shops that lined the streets, all of them probably warm, a few of them with food or clothes. He looked down at his only form of protection, a small metal rod, no longer than his forearm. He clutched it to his chest as if it were a lifeline, though the cold metal was starting to hurt his hands.

"I-I n-n-need t-to g-get w-warm." Jaune muttered, before stumbling through the sidewalk. He stayed out of the way of the other people, for the most part. There were times when he would bump into another person, in which he would mumble a small apology before continuing down the street. He was starving, so he was looking for a restaurant of some kind. But after about ten minutes of stumbling around, the cold was so unbearable that he pushed his way into a random store.

It was an ice cream parlor, so it was still a little cold inside, but it was much better than the cold outside. Jaune stumbled into one of the booths, before curling in on himself in the seat. He lay there shivering, though not as bad as before.

He lay there for what felt like hours, his body shaking as it desperately tried to sustain his body temperature. He shivered, suffering from painful cramps as he did so.

Hours passed, people came and went, only a few of them sparing a glance at the poor boy in the booth. Jaune was about to fall asleep, and fear gripped his heart at the thought of it being his final sleep. So desperately, he stayed awake, clinging on to his state of consciousness with all of his willpower. He shifted a little, moving his limbs so that they were in a more comfortable position, when his stomach growled loudly, drawing a few glances from the people around him. He blushed before curling into a ball, hiding his flushed cheeks.

A few more hours passed, agonizing hours at that. At least, for Jaune they were. His stomach kept growling, a reminder of how empty it was. Jaune looked up as he heard someone open the door. Looking around, he noticed that there weren't a lot of people inside, and he checked the clock hanging on a nearby wall.

"Ei-Ei-Eight th-th-thirty?" he stammered out, before looking at the store's closing hours. They closed at 9:00.

Which meant that they would kick him out of the only warmth he had.

His head dipped back into his arms, a tear leaking out of his eye.

Suddenly, he felt someone tap his arm. Looking up, he was startled to find the face of a girl in close ( _very_ close) proximity to his own, and he let out a small yelp as he backed into the wall behind him.

The two stared at each other for a few moments, before Jaune broke the silence. "C-C-Can I-I h-h-help y-you?"

The girl frowned, and Jaune had the small urge to manually bring the edges of her lips upwards, something that he loved to do with his sisters.

The girl was very pretty, if not adorable. She was both really, with her pink eyes staring curiously into his own, and small, pale lips that were currently in a frown. Her white hair, which would probably end at her calves if she were to stand, was tied into a single braid from the middle to the end. Her bangs framed her paled face nicely, and she had a small cowlick at the top of her head. She wore a white track suite that had pink stripes starting from below her armpits and ended at the middle of her thigh. The tracksuit ended there, and the rest of her legs were covered in black thermal leggings, which ended in a pair of white, shin-high boots.

Hanging on her thigh was a sheathed katana, with a pink handle, and a white sheath.

"Who are you? I don't remember seeing you around here," she said, tilting her head a little as she gently poked him with her index finger. Her voice was soft, but loud enough to be heard. Jaune could barely feel her poking him, with how cold he was and such.

"M-My n-n-name is J-Jaune. I-I'm not f-from h-here," he said, holding out his hand for her to shake.

She tentatively took his hand into her own, and her frown deepened. "The name's Irene. Nice to meet ya'. Why are you so cold?"

Jaune took his hand out of hers and pointed outside. "I-I s-stayed ou-outs-side f-for t-too long."

Irene shook her before offering him her hand. "Why don't you go home? Here, I'll take you there."

He replied with a firm shake of his head. "I-I d-don't h-h-have any-nywhere t-to go."

The white-haired girl turned to him. "What do you mean?"

Jaune turned away from her. "I-I r-r-ran away f-from h-h-home."

"And home is where?" she asked.

"Vacuo."

Irene chuckled a little. "And you decided to come to Atlas? Talk about climate change." Even then, she turned to him and offered him her hand.

"C'mon, I'll take you to my place," she offered. "There you'll at least have food and warmth."

Jaune stared at her hand skeptically. "S-S-Suspicious."

Irene pulled away her hand and instead scratched the back of her head with it. "Yeah, I guess that would seem suspicious, wouldn't it?"

Despite that, Jaune got out of his seat and stood beside her. "B-B-But I-I d-don't h-h-have any-anywhere els-else to go." Tentatively, one of Jaune's shaking hands reached for Irene's arm. She met him halfway, and pulled him into a warm hug that he hadn't felt since he left home.

"Don't worry Little Jauney, you're gonna be alright."

* * *

 **5 Years Later**

 **Vale; City of Vale: Bullhead Station to Beacon Academy...**

So, here he was, standing in front of the Bullhead station of Beacon Academy, about to become a Huntsman. Technically he was already a Huntsman, right? After all, he passed Basic, and there really wasn't anything a Huntsman could do that a Division Agent couldn't. The only difference is that one kills bad guys, and the other stops bad guys and occasionally kills a few of them. The former was the Division, obviously. However, since regulations are a b*tch, if Jaune wanted to become a Huntsman he'd have to go to a combat school.

And seeing as he was already 17, he couldn't go to Signal, and instead had to go to Beacon. Of course, in order to go there you have to have gone to a combat school previously, which Jaune didn't. Luckily, some transcripts from the RNG seemed to solve that little problem.

Jaune's next problem presented itself as soon as he sat down. Looking around, he noticed the lighthearted and carefree atmosphere. He would have to blend in with the crowd. Of course, a soldier-esque presence would undoubtedly trouble a few students, Jaune had to put up an act.

He would have to be weak. And so...

Weak would he become.

* * *

 **Vale; Beacon Academy: Several months later in Proffessor Goddwitch's class...**

Jaune wiped a small drop of blood that was forming on the corner of his lip as Ms. Goodwitch called the match. "Enough!" she cried. "Mr. Arc, I advise next time that you be wary of your aura consumption." Jaune gave a small nod. He'd restricted too much of his aura's reserves this time around.

Ms. Goodwitch returned the gesture before turning to Jaune's opponent, Cardin Winchester.

"And you, Mr. Winchester. Overkill will not be tolerated! Not only that, but it is also not advised. That wasted energy could be spent doing better things, things that could save your life or other's." Ms. Goodwitch reprimanded.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I got my aura to give me more energy when I need it." Cardin uncaringly replied.

Ms. Goodwitch's eyebrow twitched. "And is your aura unlimited? What if you are in a situation in which your aura reserves are low? Would you still be able to continue on?" She asks, a victorious smirk flashing across her face before vanishing when Cardin remained silent.

Jaune went back to his seat, pretending to look miserable, as per usual. Probably his best friend and partner, Pyrrha, moved to comfort him.

As per usual.

He looked up to look back up at the front of the classroom, only to see a hand wave to him out of the corner of his eye. Turning to it, he saw that Ruby was the one who had waved at him, and she gave him a thumbs up as soon as she saw that she had his attention. Jaune gave her a small smile in return, just to show her that he was fine with the loss.

If he were being honest, this charade was starting to become tiring. He understood its necessity, but still disliked it. It was damaging to his pride to lose to someone with that kind of upbringing.

Suddenly, the bell rang, signaling the end of class.

"Class dismissed!"

* * *

 **Vale; Beacon Academy:Team JNPR Dorm...**

Jaune lounged lazily on his bed, an X-Ray and Vav comic book held above his head as Pyrrha sat across from him on her own bed, combing her mane of crimson hair. Oddly enough, he found himself entranced by his partner's hair. He always wondered whether or not the color was natural, and he sometimes admired its beauty. Of course, it was mostly subconscious; after all, he was still a hormonal 17-year-old boy going through puberty, no matter how much military training he had.

Apparently, life liked to f*k with people that way.

He stared at Pyrrha's hair for a few more minutes, which, unfortunately for him, did not go unnoticed. Blushing, Pyrrha called out to him.

"I-Is something the matter Jaune?" she asked, the brush in her hands shaking a little.

Jaune finally noticed that Pyrrha had seen him staring and was quick to apologize. "Sorry Pyrrha, it's just... your hair is really pretty. Is its color natural?"

The champion nodded, looking down at her hands and twiddling her thumbs.

"*Whistle* You don't see that very often. That's pretty cool." Jaune said, standing up from his bed and throwing the comic book to the side. He grabbed a medium sized pouch, bought the week prior, before heading off.

"Hey Pyrrha, I'm going to go train a little in the arena. If you need me, you know where to find me," Jaune called back as he left the room.

* * *

 **Vale; Beacon Academy:** **Arena...**

As Jaune walked through the ornate hallways of the academy, he passed by a vibrant crop of students, too many to to be a team, who were apparently talking about current events.

"Yeah dude, I mean, everything's basically gone to sh*t in the city. The VPD really f*cked up this time around." Jaune heard one of them say.

"I know. It sucks that we can't go to the arcade like we used to." One of the girls said somberly.

She was lightly nudged by a taller boy beside her, who jokingly exclaimed, "Unless you want to get mugged by thugs or killed by world-renowned criminals, then we'd best stay way the f*ck away from the arcade, for some time."

The group passed by Jaune without a glance, but the subject they were talking about piqued Jaune's interest. He hadn't been that behind, had he? Sure, he took a break from looking into current events, but even then, that was only for a few months. Surely things hadn't changed _that_ drastically in such a short period of time.

"I really _should_ start prepping myself..." he muttered.

He made a quick trip to Beacon's Armory, where students could borrow weapons to practice with. He grabbed an Atlesian M4 off of the racks, as well as an Atlesian UMP-9. Of course, he grabbed some sim rounds for them, too.

"Beacon sure does love its Atlas weaponry," Jaune murmured under his breath. He walked out of the armory, M4 lowered in his hands, UMP-9 hanging from a sling by his side, and Crocea Mors on his left hip.

He stepped into the training arena. It had been used recently, given how the combat drones were still repairing themselves, and the presence of quite the number of craters in the dirt floor. Jaune shrugged and waited for the drones to finish up, walking over to a nearby bench and loading all of the magazines he brought, which were five standard 30-round mags for the M4, and six standard 32-round mags for the UMP. They all went inside the pouch he had brought, which, in all honesty, barely fit them all. In fact, one of the UMP mags was sticking out of the side.

"*Sigh* There are times when I just wish I didn't have to act. Now is one of them," Jaune lamented, a little bit disappointed that he couldn't use his Tac-Vest. Ah, the storage...

Jaune was snapped out of his reverie when a beep signified that the drones were ready to be activated. Smiling a little, he went up to the control panel and set them to the Full Setting, as well as setting the number of drones to three.

He quickly got set up in the middle of the arena as a 30-second timer started to count down. He inserted a fully loaded mag (NOT CLIP) into both weapons and aimed at the three drones with the M4.

 **5...**

Jaune let his breathing slow, his body becoming unnaturally still.

 **4...**

With both of his eyes open, the drone in the middle had its head sighted, ready to be blown off.

 **3...**

Jaune quickly flicked the safety off on his gun.

 **2...**

His finger touched the trigger.

 **1...**

Breathe in...

 ***BEEP***

Breathe out... *BANG*

* * *

 **Vale; Beacon Academy:** **In the Cafeteria...**

Jaune wiped the sweat off of his brow as he stood in line for food, eyeing the meals hungrily. Apparently, Beacon didn't get the memo about current school lunches. Once he grabbed his plate, comprising of an eight ounce steak, steamed broccoli, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and steak sauce, he went over to his team's usual table. He wasn't really happy about the tables location, if he were being honest. It was in the middle of the room, and usually his team sat on the bench that had his back to the door. If only they could have chosen the corner seat, which was close to the door while giving them a wide view of the room. That would've made Jaune a lot happier.

But, of course, that wasn't the case, Jaune thought to himself as he sat down at the table. His friends were up to their usual antics, taking almost nothing seriously. Except for Weiss. Speaking of the girl taking nothing seriously, he should probably stop with those advances of his. They were originally just a part of his facade, but Jaune could tell that the white haired heiress was getting pretty annoyed.

"Meh," Jaune said while shrugging, before digging into his meal.

While he ate, Jaune watched the wall-mounted TV screen which displayed a crashed Bullhead with the words 'No More Pain' spray painted across the side of the burnt surface, along with the symbol of the White Fang. The reporter's words were mostly drown out by the chatter of the students, but Jaune could still hear it.

 _"In what is possibly the boldest course of action taken in years, the White Fang shot down SDC Dust Delivery Bullhead #395 last night, sometime near midnight. Witnesses to the incident report that several cases of dust seemed to have exploded as soon as the Bullhead was shot, and the ship disappeared underneath the tree tops of Forever Fall forest soon after. The Valean Police Department advises all residents near the forest to remain inside their homes until further notice. Investigators are currently attempting to find any traces of the weaponry used to down the Bullhead. This is Lisa Lavender, Alert 1 News."_

Jaune's gaze steadily drifted down to his left wrist, where the black and orange themed watch rested beneath his sleeve, hidden from the world.

The first semester was already coming to a close, and Jaune had successfully created the image of a weak boy trying to be someone he isn't. But now... the chance of him being 'activated' was at an all time high.

That team he had passed on his way to the arena had brought his attention back to world-wide events, which he had forgotten about due to his friends and time at Beacon. On this way to cafeteria, Jaune had searched up recent news on his scroll. Needless to say, he did not like what he saw. Vale was torn. Thugs now littered the streets, criminals somehow manage to escape from the Liner's Correctional Facility. The worst part was probably the fact that there were divisions, which had broken off from the White Fang of all people, who have recently been linked with quite a few homicides.

Most of the activity was centered in Vale, but there were also some reports of major White Fang activity in Atlas and Vacuo as well.

With all of that in mind, Jaune couldn't help but be on edge. He was both excited and afraid. Excited that he would see some action and actually utilize his training, and afraid because he didn't want to leave his friends. He'd have to, according to regulations. He looked to his left, where all of his friends were having fun.

Yang had apparently just told another one of her "jokes", heavy on the quotation marks, as evident by the deadpanned stares she was getting. Seconds later, everyone ignored it altogether and continued doing what they were doing. Nora was trying to race to the lunch line, but was held back by Ren's hand grabbing the back of her shirt. Pyrrha was giggling at their antics. Blake was reading a book while simultaneously holding a conversation with Weiss about Port's homework which, unsurprisingly, was to list the five ways to kill a Beowulf that he had described in his class the previous day. Apparently, Weiss was having trouble with number five.

...and four.

...and three.

Jaune couldn't blame her, honestly. Thankfully, he had taken to recording his classes with his watch, then listening to them on his scroll. Anything that happened visually... well... he'd had to ask his team mates for those.

But, back to the lunchroom, poor Ruby had nobody else to talk to, and was instead the victim of Yang's constant stream of puns. She sent him a look from the other side of the table, a message clear within her eyes.

'HELP ME!'

He laughed silently, mouthing an apology to her and trying his best to ignore and not laugh at the betrayed expression on the reaper's face. His thoughts went back to the Division not long after.

He didn't want to leave his friends. And on the off chance that they see him while he's working, he didn't want to feel guilty for lying to them should they confront him about his training. With an exasperated sigh, Jaunee glanced down at his watch again, and to his shock and slight horror, the rim was blinking blue.

There were two colors that the watch had, blue and orange. Blue meant that you were on standby, and that you should be prepared to be called at a moments notice. Orange meant that you were activated, and you were expected to be out in the field within 24 hours of your activation.

His was blue, so that meant he was close to being called. He had to prepare all of his gear.

He stood up immediately, causing both teams (J)NPR and RWBY to look at him. "Jaune? Where are you going?" Pyrrha asked. The others nodded along with her question.

Jaune gave her a smile. "It's nothing. I just got a call from Headmaster Ozpin, that's all." He replied. At this, Pyrrha began to stand up.

"Then I should go too. As your partner I should be there as well" Pyrrha stated. Nora bolted up from her seat as well.

"Me and Renny too, fearless leader!" Nora cheered, dragging her poor childhood friend by the back of his collar. Jaune shook his head in response.

"No, guys. I appreciate it, but I've gotta go alone. Sucks, I know. But trust me! There'll still be plenty more Jaune to pass around!" He joked. This caused the whole table to look at him dryly. "R-Right... Well, I've gotta go now. I'll see you l-, uh, later."

* * *

And with that, Jaune walked away from the table. However, as he was doing so, Ruby noticed that his sleeve had hiked up just a tiny bit, but it was enough to reveal the glowing blue watch on his left wrist.

"What the...?" she murmured.

As soon as Jaune was out of earshot, Ruby told the others.

"Hey, uh, guys? When did Jaune have a watch?" She asked the table. The others looked around in confusion. Team (J)NPR looked at Ruby in confusion.

"What brought this up?" Pyrrha asked her. Ruby pointed to the door that Jaune had just walked out of.

"Jaune had a glowing blue watch on his hand! I noticed it when he walked out of the door. It looked so cool!"

Blake put down her book. "Yeah, I saw it too."

Yang grinned. "Even while you were reading your porn?" she asked, slyly nudging Blake's side with her elbow. The girl in black rolled her eyes at her partner's antics, but the blush on her cheeks gave away her embarrassment.

Weiss scoffed. "Please, it's probably just some toy he got from a kids meal or something."

Ruby turned to her with a pout. "If he got it from a kids meal, then I would have already had it! In fact, I haven't seen anything like it on any of the McZonald's kid's toys catalogs!" Ruby exclaimed, shaking her fist in the air. "I should know! I go there every time they come out with a new toy line!"

The entire table went silent. Ruby looked around at the faces of her friends, who were desperately trying not to laugh.

"R-Ruby?" Yang called, holding a hand to her mouth.

"Yeah?"

"You just admitted to buying kids meals... at age 15..."

Once Ruby was made aware of what she did, her cheeks heated up. Seconds later, her hood hid her face from the world.

After the good laugh, Blake noticed the worried expression that was still on Pyrrha's face. Gently, Blake nudged the champion's foot with her own, sending her a questioning look when she had her attention.

"It's nothing Blake, it's just... I've never noticed that he had a watch before. I've never even seen it. Not even on the nightstand before bed," Pyrrha told her, the wariness evident in her voice.

Nora threw in her own two cents. "Maybe it's some super secret spy gadget!"

"No, Nora," Ren said, "our team leader is not a spy."

Nora smirked at him. "Aha! But that's what he wants you to think!"

Pyrrha giggled at Nora's antics, lifting a bit of the wariness from her mind. Just a bit.

"Pyrrha, a simple accessory doesn't mean the end of he world is approaching," Weiss said from across the table.

Said champion looked up at the heiresses and tilted her head, curious as to what the girl meant.

Weiss cleared her throat. "What I meant to say, was that Jaune having a watch doesn't mean he's in any sort of trouble. Does it really matter if you've never seen it before?"

Pyrrha shook her head.

"Exactly," Weiss stated, "so just relax. I'm sure you're worrying over nothing."

The champion nodded. Yeah, she was just being paranoid. Of course.

So why did she still feel that pit in her stomach?

* * *

 **Vale; Beacon Academy;** **Team JNPR Dorm...**

Jaune went into the closet. He dug behind all of the piles of clothes, as well as a box full of his personal belongings, and finally pulled out a large sized black backpack. It was a sling pack, with a single grey device which was glowing blue on the strap, along with a few pouches filled with ammunition. He'd hidden it behind his own things so that his team mates wouldn't see it. He looked at the time on his watch. He had five minutes to check on his gear. He opened up his backpack and found his AUG Para 3x, and his Covert SRS. His TRCK .45 tracking pistol was already in its holster. Aside from that, his Tac-Vest was stored inside, along with a few mags for all three guns. His knee pads were inside, as well as his Combat HUD glasses, a pair of sunglasses similar in appearance to the Oakey sunglasses.

Jaune looked at the time again. Two minutes until team JNPR would return from lunch.

There was one thing Jaune still hadn't checked on yet, and he reached inside to grab it. A silver canister, about the same size as Dr. Oobleck's thermos, came out of the pack in his grasp. It had a cord sticking out of the bottom, which needed to be pulled. It was a mobile parachute.

Before he could inspect it further, Jaune heard the door to the room click, signifying his team mate's return. He quickly stuffed the canister back into his backpack, then stuffed his backpack back into the closet and rearranged the clothes and his stuff to hide it.

"Jaune?"

The young Arc looked to his right to find Pyrrha's head poking around the corner, green eyes peering down at him in confusion.

"What are you doing down there?" she asked, stepping out of the corner and clasping her hands behind her back. Jaune closed the closet door and stood up, dusting off his pants afterwards.

"Oh, you know, just deciding what I should wear tomorrow. After all, we're still going on that trip to Vale tomorrow, right?" Jaune asked.

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow at him. "Tomorrow? I thought that was planned for next week?"

Jaune feigned surprise. "Really? I thought it was tomorrow!"

Pyrrha smiled a little while shaking her head, before switching topics. "Anyway, what did the Headmaster want with you?"

"Sorry, I can't really tell you. It's supposed to be 'confidential', or something like that," Jaune lied, again. "Anyway, I'm gonna go take a shower. That workout really made me sweat!"

Pyrrha nodded, letting Jaune pass her by and into the bathroom. As soon as the door to the bathroom closed, Pyrrha used her semblance and quietly opened the closet without the rails squeaking. She heard the shower start up, and she went to work removing the clothes and Jaune's stuff carefully. Behind it all, sitting in the darkness of the closet, was a black backpack.

With a grey device that glowed a disturbingly ominous blue.

* * *

 **A/N: Alright guys, so I'm trying to flesh out the story a little more, as evident by how different the first chapter is. So yeah, here it is. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed, and if you find anything wrong please leave a review about it.**

 **IU13, signing out!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Alright guys, so welcome to chapter 2 of Division of Duties! The feedback on the first chapter was fairly good, and I'm glad that it was well-received. I'll be replying to all of your reviews on chapter 5, so look forward to that.**

 **Anyway, that aside, let's get this show on the road!**

* * *

 **Atlas; City of Stratos: Irene's Apartment...**

Jaune walked inside of Irene's apartment, immediately thankful for the warmth. Of course, he had his concerns, but the girl was nice, if not rather exuberant. She also had a bit of a problem with respecting others' personal space, but Jaune appreciated the body heat. Once inside, he immediately noticed how... bland the apartment was. White walls with no decoration, and to the right only a white couch with a television hanging on the wall. To the left was a kitchen with black granite counter tops, an island, as well as stainless steel appliances. To the left of the kitchen was a small hallway, which had three doors, one at the very end, and two to the right and left.

Jaune watched as Irene pulled off her boots and motioned for him to do the same. He slipped off his sneakers, placing them next to her boots, and waited for Irene as she left for the middle door. She came back after a few minutes with a pair of black cargo shorts and a white, long sleeved v-neck. She handed them to Jaune and pointed to the door on the left.

"That's the bathroom. Please shower, 'cuz I don't want you stinking up my place if your story is to be believed." Irene said. "Also, I don't have boxers, for obvious reasons, so you're gonna have to go commando."

Jaune blushed but nodded nonetheless, scurrying into the bathroom and locking the door behind him. He only showered for a few minutes, not wanting to jack up his savior's hydro bill, but he did apppreciate the warm water. It chased away the numbing on his skin, and he could now feel how sore he was from the shivering. He pulled on the clothes provided and stepped out of the bathroom, his hair a bit damp.

When he walked into the main room he found Irene leaning on the counter eating off a plate chicken nuggets. There was an extra plate with more nuggets next to her, and she smiled and slid the plate towards him.

"Here. I'm sure you're hungry after all that time in the cold."

The loud rumbling of Jaune's stomach was her answer, and she giggled at the adorable blush that spread across the boy's face.

"Don't be in a rush, though. I know you're starving, but it's still pretty hot. Don't want to burn your tongue, now do we?" She teased as she saw Jaune eagerly grab one of the nuggets and drop it back onto the plate, blowing at his fingers.

He looked at her curiously. "How are yours cooled down already, though?"

Irene raised in eyebrow in confusion. Jaune pointed at the chicken nugget in her hands. "You're holding yours, so it must be cooled down, right?"

Irene shook her head. "No, I'm just using my aura to protect my fingertips from the heat."

Now it was Jaune's turned to be confused. "Aura?"

Irene giggled at his confusion. "Geez, most boys your age at least know what aura is. What have your parents been teaching you?"

At that, Jaune's face darkened. "Nothing..." he muttered.

"Huh?" Irene asked, having not heard him.

"They don't teach me anything." He said, a bit louder than before. Tears were falling from his eyes, making the sapphire irises shine like beautiful gems. Irene frowned a little.

"They don't think I'm strong enough. They think I'm weak. I wanted to be a huntsman, but they always tell me that I'm too weak. They wouldn't train me..." Jaune said, his voice cracking at points before he lost it at the end. Irene pulled him into a hug and let him sob into her shoulder.

"It's alright. You're not weak, I can tell you right now. You are plenty strong. I can't believe your parents would say that to their son." Irene murmured the last part under her breath.

Jaune smiled a little. "You think so?"

She nodded. "I know so! You're only, what? Eleven? Twelve?"

Jaune nodded. "I'm twelve."

"And that's even more impressive! You managed to get to Atlas from Vacuo, _and_ survive the cold for this long! Most boys can't do that." Irene exclaimed, ruffling his hair.

"So tell you what? I'll train you to be the best huntsman there ever was! What do you say?" Irene offered her hand to Jaune, with a bright smile.

Jaune's tears were now not of sadness, but of pure, unadulterated happiness.

"Yes!"

* * *

 **Vale; Beacon Academy:Professor Goodwitch's class...**

Jaune sighed as he stood in the ring, silently cursing out Glynda for selecting him again. Most students would find this as a minor annoyance, having to spar, but for Jaune, it was starting to become a pain in the neck. Every time he went up, he'd have to restrict his aura level, and it was always inconsistent, seeing as he did not have his Focus Language to aid him.

"F*k me..." Jaune murmured.

He sighed as he readied Crocea Mors.

He dropped into a stance. Truth be told, he was still tired from his morning training sessions, and to be honest, a little groggy. He had woken up early to accommodate for some extra training time, which meant cutting into his sleeping time.

Even now, as he leveled his sword at his opponent, Jaune's mind was half awake.

His opponent, a tall, fair skinned brunnete boy named Julius, primed his gun. Upon closer inspection, Jaune could make out its moving parts for its melee weapon form, but he didn't know what it changed into.

Wanting to get this fight over with, and not entirely feeling like getting the crap beaten out of him, Jaune decided to let loose a bit.

He channeled his aura into his sword, hoping that his classmates didn't notice. Looking over, it seemed like he was doing a pretty good job.

Goodwitch looked at both of them. "Are both combatants ready?"

Jaune gave a simple nod, while Julius gave a thumbs up. Goodwitch raised her hand, and brought it down, signaling the beginning of the match.

Jaune charged forward, swinging his sword from the side in hopes to knock away Julius' gun. The brunette backpedaled away, just barely dodging Jaune's attack before letting loose a torrent of bullets. Jaune raised his shield, blocking all of them and continued to push forward. He lunged to the side, bullets impacting the ground where he once was, and pushed off the ground towards his opponent.

The barrel of Julius' gun swiveled towards him, but Jaune batted it away with the face of his shield, his aura-enhanced sword smashing into Julius' aura and knocking him back a fair distance.

Jaune gave him no respite. He continued to press onto Julius' desperate defense, which was ballistic cover. Jaune nimbly dodged the bullets, all the while attempting to make the dodges themselves look like stumbles. The attempt ended up with him taking a fair number of rounds to the legs and chest, but he pushed on nonetheless.

Now within effective range, Jaune's sword came down for a vertical slash, but was intercepted by a blade. Jaune looked at his opponent's weapon and was surprised to see a sword, as opposed to the blocky gun from before. The top portion of the gun had folded down and shifted to reveal a blade, while the handle of the gun slid down the bottom half to become the handle of the sword. Jaune still saw the barrel of the gun.

He frowned, but swept Julius' sword to the side, before swiftly redirecting Crocea Mors for an upward slash. Julius' hastily blocked the strike, but it was clumsy at best, and it knocked him down onto his back. Jaune brought his sword down, only for it to hit dirt as Julius rolled to the side. The brunette scrambled back to his feet before lunging forwards, his sword biting into Jaune's aura. Jaune himself was knocked down onto his stomach, and he felt numerous slashes impact his aura on his back.

Jaune rolled over, his shield coming up to protect himself before he retaliated with a slash of his own, forcing Julius to fall back. In that short period of time Jaune rolled over into a standing position, his shield facing Julius while he recovered. He spared a quick glance at the clock.

"2 minutes, huh? I should make this quick." He muttered to himself.

Jaune let his aura flow into his sword, not bothering to hide the fact that he was doing it, and unleashed multiple slashes. Blades of aura came rushing towards Julius, too numerous in number to effectively dodge, and he was forced to try and block them with his own aura, drastically draining it, to the point it was in the yellow zone.

Jaune's sword fell back to his side, his breaths labored. Julius used the time to charge forward, his weapon transforming back into gun mode. He fired rounds as he charged forward, forcing Jaune to use his shield to block, before attempting to jam his gun into Jaune's gut.

In Jaune's mind, he had a flashback. Instead of Julius, he saw another man, wielding a pistol, attempting to jam the barrel of the gun into his stomach. Jaune's eyes glazed over.

Jaune sidestepped before Julius' weapon could touch him.

Julius stumbled a bit, falling to the ground as he had lost his balance. Looking up, he saw Jaune standing there, a blank expression on his face.

It was scary, considering Jaune's sword was poised high in the air.

Then, the Arc started slashing.

...and slashing...

...and slashing...

There was no pause, at least, not until Goodwitch intervened herself. Using her semblance, she held Jaune firmly in place, hoisting him into the air.

"Mr. Arc! You have gone far enough! Can you not see that your opponent's aura has gone into the red?!"

Jaune snapped out of his reverie, eyes coming up to look at the scene before him. A kid lying in a small crater, Crocea Mors in his hand, and a furious Glynda Goodwitch glaring at him. Jaune opened his mouth, but closed it after he put together what had happened.

"F*k..." He murmured.

Glynda raised an unamused eyebrow at him before letting him go and pointing at his seat. "You are to return to your seat. You will stay after class where we will have a... discussion, about your misconduct."

 **After class...**

"So? Care to explain to me what that was?" Glynda asked, her arms crossed underneath her bust. Jaune gulped, eyes glued to the hands that wrung nervously in his lap.

"I uh..." Jaune said, struggling to come up with anything.

"You performed exceptionally well today. I am proud of you for that. However, yesterday you did not perform nearly as well as today, so that does make me rather suspicious."

Jaune gulped again, something that he seemed to be doing a lot in the presence of the blonde professor.

"Well... y'know... I'm being trained by Pyrrha, of all people, so..." Jaune tried to explain, but it was no use.

"And? You've been training with Ms. Nikos since the beginning of the semester, and you've shown little to no improvement," Glynda explained. "And to put it bluntly, you were horrendous yesterday. So imagine my surprise when, all of a sudden, you manage to win, with your aura still in the green, no less."

Jaune laughed nervously while scratching the back of his head. "Hehehehe... Uh... I uh..."

Glynda sighed, before walking around and sitting on top of her desk, next to where Jaune was sitting. She laid a reassuring hand on top of his. "Mr. Arc... Jaune... I am very concerned. Ever since your third fight in my class, I've noticed quite a few things."

Jaune's forehead glistened with sweat. ' _F*k, did I blow it?_ '

"Like... what kinds of... things?" Jaune asked slowly, wary of what he was about to hear.

Glynda smiled softly, once again, a gesture to reassure Jaune. "For example, how your aura levels always seemed to be inconsistent. And how you always seem to hesitate, when I know you know you had an opportunity to strike. You're holding back. My question is, why?"

Jaune sighed and closed his eyes. "F*k."

He winced as Glynda's riding crop slapped his hand. "Language, Mr. Arc. Well? Are you going to explain?"

Jaune sighed. "To be completely honest, I'm a lot better then I let on, as I'm sure you're aware by now." Jaune internally cringed. This was where the lies came into play. "But I... cannot bring myself to fight people. The Grimm, to me, are a far more important target than fellow humans. We should not be fighting each other, and instead we should be gathering together in order to deal with a common enemy!" Jaune exclaimed.

The two sat there in a short silence, and in that time, Jaune was mentally beating himself up for how naive he sounded.

Glynda sighed, probably thinking the same thing he was. "Even then, Mr. Arc, your grades are directly affected by how well you do in combat. Should you perform poorly, I'm afraid your career as a Huntsman will be incredibly difficult. Unlike some of the world's greatest Huntsman, you would only receive low-tier jobs."

Jaune scoffed. "I'm not aiming to be one of the world's greatest Huntsman. That's a ridiculous goal to strive for. What I want is to put down the Grimm, once and for all. To put down the beasts that try to annihilate us because that is what we are, keepers of the peace, the defenders of hope, the guardians of world," Jaune said. "I have no time for fame, or for climbing my way up some kind of ladder to being the best. I came here to learn to do a job. A duty. No more, no less. I know how to fight, but I'm not going to waste my time going against another person."

Jaune internally winced at how hypocritical he sounded to himself.

Glynda, however, struggled to form words under Jaune's 'resolute' gaze.

"Well... I cannot say that I disagree with you on that," she relented, a sigh escaping her lips. "However, if it would not trouble you too much, I would ask of you to fully reveal your true combat potential."

Jaune gave a sigh of his own, but nodded nonetheless. "Yes ma'am."

Glynda nodded in response. "Good. You are free to leave."

Jaune couldn't have left faster even if he wanted to.

* * *

 **Vale; Beacon Academy:** **Team JNPR Dorm...**

As soon as he arrived, Jaune flopped down onto his bed with a soft groan. Pyrrha, who sat on her own bed, looked over at him in concern.

"Jaune? Are you alright?"

Apparently deeming speech to be too troublesome, Jaune settled for a flippant wave of the hand.

The concern not residing, Pyrrha went over to her partner's bed and sat down beside him. She gently rubbed his back as a comforting gesture. "What's wrong, Jaune?"

Said Arc turned his head to the side, facing her, and Pyrrha did not like the look of dismay on his face. "Just... Just dealing with some things. Y'know, the usual."

Something was wrong. When it came to his doubts Jaune would never have sounded so... dispassionate. Yet, it seemed like the problem within only seemed to annoy him, tire him.

"Jaune, you can tell me anything. You know that. Right?" Pyrrha asked, running her fingers through Jaune's mane of blonde hair.

Gestures of affection such as this were not really uncommon between the two. After all, they practically spent their every waking moment together.

"Yeah. I know that. It's just... sometimes I don't really know how to describe what I want to tell," Jaune admitted, a tired sigh escaping through his lips.

"Well," Pyrrha began, "how about you tell me what happened to cause the problem in the first place?"

The suggestion seemed good enough. "Alright," Jaune said, turning onto his side and propping his head up on one arm.

"Well, for starters, I messed up." Jaune said.

"When?"

"Eh... About a few days ago."

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow at this. "Okay then... Why are you upset about it? After all, you redeemed yourself today. And speaking of which, I'm very proud of you Jaune."

The Arc boy gave her a small smile. "Thanks Pyr. And the reason why I was so upset was because I... I lost control. I let myself become too absorbed and I... I guess I wasn't thinking? I don't really even know. I just know that I let myself slip, and it agrivates me. "

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow at him. "Well... it's a mistake, yes. But as humans, we make mistakes all the time. The most important thing to remember is that in order to improve, you must learn from your mistakes. So," she lifted his chin up with her free hand, the other still combing his hair, "there's no need to look so upset. You learned from it, right?"

Jaune nodded.

"Then all is fine," Pyrrha said with a smile, but Jaune couldn't bring himself to return it. He thought back to his conversation with Goodwitch.

 _"I would ask of you to fully reveal your true combat potential._ "

If he were to do that, then how would Pyrrha feel, knowing that he lied to her? Granted that, yes, he's been lying to her this whole time, but if he were to fight with even half of his real skill this lie would be one he'd be caught in.

He turned away from her smile, a smile he knew he didn't deserve. Pyrrha, ever-sharp, noticed his unease, and nudged his shoulder. "What's wrong?"

He didn't speak for a few minutes, but instead got up from the bed silently, nod bowed deeply before her.

"Jaune? What are you...?"

"I'm sorry." He said suddenly, and firmly.

Pyrrha was a bit taken aback for the sudden apology. "F-For what? I don't think you've done anything wrong."

Jaune shook his head, his eyes not meeting hers. "I lied to you."

Pyrrha's gaze softened. "About what? What did you lie to me about?"

"I... I'm a better fighter than I let on." Jaune answered stiffly. Pyrrha sighed, a bit of exasperation in her voice.

She stood up and walked over to him, standing directly in front of his bowed head. She bent over slightly and reached for his chin with her hand, and brought his gaze up to hers. She was met with sapphire eyes filled with shame, and she couldn't really help but giggle.

"Wha-What's so funny?" Jaune asked, a bit baffled.

Pyrrha shook her head. "Jaune, I'm a champion fighter. I've known you've been holding back for quite a while. I'd have to be daft to not recognize that. My only question is, why?"

Jaune looked to the side. "I just... I can't bring myself to fight other people... I'd rather focus my efforts on fighting the Grimm."

Pyrrha looked into his eyes, searching for any sign of deceit before nodding in satisfaction.

"Then that's fine. But, y'know... you could've just told us that from the start." Pyrrha said, lightly chopping his head with her other hand.

"But it doesn't matter. However... I do think a punishment is in order." Pyrrha remarked, a grin forming on her face. Jaune subconsciously gulped.

"Uh... like what?"

Pyrrha tapped her chin with her finger, before holding it up in the air as if she had an idea. "I know! You have to spar with me. No holding back, and if I catch you I'll make sure you won't have any of Ren's cooking for a whole week. How's that sound?"

Jaune frowned, it inwardly grinned. They didn't know that he could cook. He could care less if he didn't have Ren's cooking. That was just a convenience.

"You're on! When are we doing this?"

Pyrrha looked up in thought, before tapping her fist onto her palm. "Tomorrow. We don't have any classes, and Team RWBY is leading for a mission tomorrow as well."

Jaune nodded, and stood up to his full height. He wiped an imaginary drop of sweat off of his face.

"Phew. I thought that was going to be a lot tougher." He said, then fell to the bed, and after a short pause he jokingly let out a snore.

Pyrrha giggled, gently shoving him on the shoulder.

"C'mon lazy butt, get up. We should check on Nora seeing as Ren is in Vale," she said as she stood up.

"Can't you just call them?" came the muffled reply.

Pyrrha thought about that, and glanced over to Jaune's form, still on the bed. "Well... oh, alright."

Pyrrha pulled out her scroll and called Ren and Nora. Apparently, Nora had gone down to Vale and met up with Ren, and right now they were in Vale's Gallaraia, the largest mall in the city.

Poor Ren, Pyrrha could already imagine how the boy had been dragged into the... lady's... section. Jaune and Pyrrha had both found that Nora had very little common sense, and whatever common sense she did have, it was mostly overwritten by some other factor in her brain.

In other words, it's Nora. The path to trying to understand her only led to madness.

Back to Pyrrha and Jaune, which the former had rejoined the latter on his bed. Pyrrha did not notice the smirk on Jaune's face. A smirk that held only mischief and evil.

Which is why she cursed herself after letting out a yelp of surprise, throwing herself onto the bed. Jaune's hands had found their way to her sides, and proceeded to dig in.

"J-Jaune! S-Stop! I-I-Is this w-why you didn't want to leave?!" Pyrrha yelped out, desperately trying to get the blonde's hand to stop their ticklish assault.

Meanwhile, Jaune merely smiled. "Maybe," he said simply, before continuing his assault.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha yelped, then placed her feet underneath his stomach and launching him off of her to the side, causing him to land on her bed. Within the blink of an eye, the tables were turned, and Pyrrha had now become the attacker. She nearly pitied Jaune.

"W-Wait, P-Pyrrha! L-Let's t-talk about this!" Jaune said, fruitlessly trying to get out of Pyrrha's bear hug. Although, yes, a bear hug was fairly easy to escape from, he had to remember to not slip up like last time. Thus meaning that he couldn't pull off a move that seemed way out of his league for something simple like this. So, he forced himself to suck it up.

"The time for diplomacy has long since passed!" Pyrrha cried out, digging her fingers into Jaune's sides, which she had learned were especially ticklish from one of their previous tickle spars.

"P-P-PYRRHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Jaune cried out in hysteria, tears at the corners of his eyes.

"I'm sorry Jaune, but even though revenge is petty," Pyrrha leaned close to Jaune's ear and whispered, "it is oh so sweet."

"NOOOOO!" Jaune cried out, a hand dramatically reaching for the sky.

"Feel my wrath!"

* * *

 **Vale; City of Vale: In the streets...**

Jaune was currently walking with his teammates as well as team RWBY in the city. Ruby had suggested they all hang out as a, "team bonding exercise". Leave it to Ruby to make up excuses to do things. Apparently, Weiss bought it. Before that, Jaune had went to Vale by himself, hoping to buy some missing supplies for his Division loadout, but he coincidentally, and quite literally, bumped into his friends on the way back. Of course, he had to explain why he was carrying items from a military surplus store, but he managed to squeeze his way out of that one by explaining he wanted to expand his horizons. Of course, that was a load of utter bullsh*t, but they believed him. Nora even suggested that he was actually a secret agent buying supplies for his next outing. But of course, Ren, the voice of reason, shot her idea down.

He couldn't really help but chuckle at that. His friends were very funny and _very_ naive. Save for Blake, since she was a former White Fang operative, not that she knew he knew that. But just being the way they are makes him laugh. Ruby heard him and slowed down so that she was walking by his side.

"What's so funny?" She asked. Jaune looked down at her and smiled.

"Nothing, just remembered something from the past." He lied, which Ruby rolled her eyes at.

"Suure... Y'know, it's not nice to lie to people. Dad always told us that it's a waste of words if you lie." Ruby scolded him, punching him lightly in his right shoulder. Jaune decided to humor her and rubbed at the spot, faking a wince as he did so.

Rubbing at the spot revealed the watch to Ruby, and its glowing blue rim caught her eye. Seeing this as an opportunity to ask about it, she dove for it.

"Hey, what the-?" Jaune cried out in confusion as he lifted his arm to find Ruby attached to it, hanging on like a monkey.

"Hey Jaune? Where'd you get this watch? It's so cool!" Ruby asked.

Jaune looked at the device on his wrist and smiled, a memory coming to mind.

 _"It is with great honor that I place this duty upon you. Will you accept?" Irene asked, holding a black watch out to a fifteen year old Jaune. He nodded._

 _"I will."_

Back to the present, Jaune brought his arm closer to his face, and therefore Ruby as well, and caressed its surface.

"From a friend."

* * *

 **Vale; Beacon Academy: Team JNPR Dorm at night...**

Jaune woke up with a jolt. He'd heard something, and Jaune reached behind his bed's headrest and produced his Alas TRCK .45. He pointed his gun at the doorway, then the window. He flicked off the safety and quietly slipped out of his bed. He stopped at the corner that led to the front hallway. The hallway was only about 5 feet in length, but it was enough for Jaune to convince himself that there might be someone in the room. He pointed his gun at the hallway, and leaned to his right, so that the barrel of his gun and his eye was the first thing to be seen from the door.

He was greeted to the sight of a closed door.

Warily, he reached for the handle of the bathroom door. Quickly, he pushed down on the handle and forcefully pushed the door open, jutting his gun through the doorway at the same time. There was nothing. With a sigh, Jaune stepped out of the bathroom and closed the door. When he heard the door click into place, he let his head fall against the door. He engaged the safety on his gun before turning around.

Sapphire eyes met with emerald.

"GAH!" Jaune yelled in surprise. He put his unoccupied hand to his chest. "Dear Oum, Pyrrha... You scared the ever living crap out of me!"

Pyrrha was recovering from her pseudo-heart attack as well. "Sorry! I was going to the bathroom and I was still a little sleepy! I wasn't paying any attention and-, I'm sorry!"

Jaune sighed in relief and chuckled. Pyrrha did as well, but then she noticed the gun in Jaune's hand.

"Jaune, when did you get a gun?" She asked.

Said blonde looked down at the pistol in his hands and inwardly panicked, but ultimately calmed himself down in a second.

"Eh, I got it in town before we met up today. I wanted to keep it a surprise until our next spar, but I guess that's not happening anymore, huh?" Jaune explained, chuckling sheepishly. Pyrrha giggled with a hand on her mouth.

"I suppose you're right. How good are you at shooting?" She asked. At that, Jaune grinned proudly and puffed out his chest.

"Hoho! I can shoot five targets in the head in under 15 seconds!" He boasted, and Pyrrha could feel the pride rolling off of him. She smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

"That's good Jaune! Very good! Do you want to practice with me later on today? I haven't practiced shooting my rifle in a little while, and I don't want to get rusty."

He smiled in response to her question. "Sure! Just you and me?"

Pyrrha grinned, a rare expression on the champion's face.

"Yep! Just you and me!"

 **Vale; City of Vale: Junior's Club...**

 **Later that day...**

Junior thought that the day was going to be peaceful. He'd have his customers, the occasional info-hungry criminal, and his nieces, who wouldn't need to actively fight anybody. He'd rather prefer to avoid another 'Blondie' incident.

Absentmindedly, he wiped at a stubborn spot on his bar with a wet rag. It wasn't often that people wished for their day to be boring, but Junior was an exception. From how long he's been doing this, he knows how hectic this life can be. Occasionally, a slow and mundane day would be nice to have.

Junior wished that today would be like that.

That wish was shattered when Roman Torchwick kicked the door open. Junior sighed in annoyance at the smug bastard's grin, and he could already make a guess as to what the prick wanted.

"Let me guess, another request for my men?" Junior asked, his hands still wiping at the stupid stain.

Torchwick's grin grew wider. "Why yes! If you would be so kind, Junior?" He replied in a fake posh accent, something which made Junior's eyebrow twitch. He sucked at his teeth and went into the back, begrudgingly doing what he was asked.

Meanwhile, Torchwick sat at the bar, a random drink he had stolen off the shelf in his hands, with a wicked grin that had the surrounding patrons back away just a bit.

 **At the same time with Jaune and Pyrrha...**

Jaune groaned as he sat down on a nearby bench, Pyrrha plopping herself next to him on his left with a wide grin.

"Last time I ever challenge you to a shooting match." He muttered, handing her a white Lien card (150).

Pyrrha simply pocketed the money with a smile and patted his shoulder.

"Don't worry, Jaune. It'll come to you with time." Pyrrha comforted him. "But I am surprised, though. For a beginner you held your own quite well." She said as she observed Jaune's targets, almost all of them center-mass.

Jaune chuckled sheepishly. "Thanks. I used to play a lot of arcade games when I was younger, most of them were shooting games. I guess I learned from there?"

Pyrrha giggled, and Jaune couldn't help but join her. After a few seconds, their laughs died down, and Pyrrha decided to ask a few questions of her own.

"Say, Jaune?"

The Arc turned to her with a smile. "Yeah? What's up?"

Pyrrha bit her bottom lip, but she pressed on, despite how nervous she was. "So... I heard you tell Ruby you got that watch from a friend," she said, pointing at Jaune's left wrist. In response, Jaune pulled his sleeve up slightly, showing her the watch in full.

It looked plain, done in a divers watch style with a rotating dial. There were three buttons on the side, one of them the adjustment knob, the other a button that Pyrrha could only assume was a timer. She didn't know what the other one did. There wasn't really anything special about it, except for its light blue glow, which emanated from its rim inside the watch and its glossy obsidian black finish.

Jaune inched his left wrist towards her, showing it to her. There was no risk of it revealing anything about his occupation.

Pyrrha gently took his arm into her hands, and gingerly touched the pristine glass. She found it odd how clean the watch was considering what they were training to be.

"Why does the rim glow?" She asked. Jaune shrugged.

"Eh, I just thought it looked cool, so I bought the version that had a glowing rim." He said dismissively, though Pyrrha didn't buy it. Still, she'd stay silent for now. She still had yet to go through that backpack in the closet.

"I see. Anyway, I noticed that you close your left eye when you aim." She commented, changing the subject.

Jaune inwardly cringed. It hurt his pride as a shooter and as an agent to do that, but he had to play along.

"Yeah. Why, am I not supposed to?" He asked.

Pyrrha shook her head. "When you aim, you're supposed to keep both of your eyes open, so that you can see everything in front of you. Closing your eye limits your field of view."

Jaune nodded in (fake) understanding. "Ah, okay. That makes sense. But it's a bit hard, though..."

Pyrrha smiled softly. "Like I said, it'll come to you with time and practice. But for now, how about we get cleaned up and get some lunch? It's Saturday, so it'd be best if we get to the cafeteria early." Jaune nodded in agreement and headed off to the men's locker room to shower. Pyrrha went to the women's to do the same.

As the water came down onto her body, Pyrrha frowned in thought. Jaune was lying to her. She knew this because of their link. She had been the one to unlock his aura, which meant inserting a bit of her own to kickstart his. This meant that, essentially, their souls were connected. Whenever Jaune would lie, Pyrrha would a small twinge in her chest. At first, she had brushed it off as stress from the constant training and schoolwork. But then, when she had confronted Jaune in their room when he was looking for that backpack, she figured out that the pain only occurred when Jaune spoke.

Her left fist clenched, and she gently rested her knuckles against the shower tiles. Why was Jaune lying to her?

She looked up at the shower head, and as the water cascaded down her face she made a decision.

She was going to look through that bag, as soon as possible.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hey guys... sorry for the late update... Short explanation, I was in D.C. on a business trip for the week. Things got busy, and I wasn't able to write as much. Anyway, the chapter's out now, a bit longer to make up for the late update.**

 **Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

 **Atlas; City of Stratos: Irene's apartment...**

Jaune wiped the sweat off of his brow. After his heartfelt talk with Irene a few weeks ago, she had made good on her deal. And Jaune was beginning to see how hard this was going to be.

"Again!" Irene barked, her hair tied up in its usual ponytail, but she wore a pair of simple black short shorts and a pink tank top. Her sheathed katana was held up high, coming to down to strike against the wooden practice sword that Jaune currently wielded. Jaune parried it, letting it glide across the surface of his sword before knocking it away. Jaune spun to follow up with a diagonal downward slash, only to be met with a kick to his face. Jaune flipped backwards due to the force, landing in a crouched position and looking up at his opponent.

Irene was in a Y-stance, one of her legs high in the air while she balanced on the other. Jaune growled and burst forward, swinging his sword from the right in a powerful arc, but Irene hopped over it, and tapped Jaune's back with her katana.

"Dead." She declared, landing gracefully back onto the floor. Jaune collapsed from exhaustion and simply lay on the floor, breathing in heavy gasps of air. Irene frowned and walked over to him, bending over his form.

"C'mon get up. We can take a break for now." She said offering her hand. She was surprised to see Jaune ignore it and get up on his own, backing away from her and dropping into a stance.

"No. I... I can still... I can still go on." Jaune panted out, his breaths labored and raspy. Irene frowned and shook her head.

"That's enough, Jaune. You're exhausted, and you can barely stand. It would be pointless to train in your current state." Irene stated, setting her katana down onto the kitchen counter. Jaune slowly lowered his arms, before letting the tip of the wooden training sword hit the floor. He set the weapon down and slowly sat on the ground, groaning as he did so.

Irene waited for him to do something else, but he didn't. He just... sat there. Curious, Irene walked over and sat down next to him, her shoulder brushing against his. She had expected some sort of reaction, but he didn't even flinch.

"Hey," she called out to him. He looked up at her, eyes empty and face expressionless. "You alright?"

Jaune remained silent and returned to looking at the floor. Irene nudged his shoulder again, and then he spoke. "Why am I doing so badly?" He mumbled, barely audible.

Irene heard him clearly, and she sighed as soon as the words left his mouth.

"J, listen to me. You're doing well, and you've only been training for three weeks. You've learned so much in that time, but that doesn't mean you're going to take an experienced fighter down." Irene said, pulling him into a hug.

She scooted over to him so that he was sitting in between her legs, and she rested her chin on his hair while Jaune leaned into her embrace. The two of them sat their in a comfortable silence, merely enjoying each other's presence. It was at that moment that Irene heard Jaune singing under his breath.

"You sing?" She asked. She felt him nod from underneath her.

"What kind of music do you like?"

Jaune tilted his head back against her chest to look at her. "Mistralian (Japanese) songs. I don't really know what genre it's called, but I do enjoy them."

Irene quirked an eyebrow at his choice of music. "And do you know what they're saying?"

Jaune nodded. "'Yup! My family thought it was weird, but I used to memorize the song's romaji lyrics, then the Valeish (English) translation."

Irene threw her head back and laughed once. "That is a bit weird, but it's pretty interesting too. Did you know I'm from Mistral?"

Jaune turned around in front of her, now sitting on his legs in a seiza. "You are? What's it like over there?"

Irene thought for a moment, trying to remember anything about her homeland. "Well... it is very... cultured. Yes, cultured, let's go with that. I mean, the people mostly keep to themselves, but the cities are always filled with people."

Jaune tilted his head cutely at her. "Wow, that sounds like the cities in Vacuo."

"Really now? How are the cities in Vacuo?" Irene asked. Jaune tilted his head and pondered for a moment.

"Well, it's pretty busy. People are always on the move and it's the opposite case with the people. They like to talk to each other a lot. And there's never a dull moment in the city. There's always some kind of noise. It made my ears hurt the last time I visited."

Irene raised an eyebrow and leaned back onto her hands, splaying her legs out before her. "Visited? Do you live in the suburbs?"

Jaune shook his head. "No, I live in the woods. My family owns a cabin next to a lake there."

"Really now?" Irene asked, intrigued. "Got any siblings?"

Jaune nodded once with a smile. "Yup! Seven sisters!"

As the words left his mouth, Irene's jaw slackened. "S-Seven?!"

Jaune nodded with a proud smirk. "Four older, one younger, and two of them are triplets with me!"

Irene's brain took a second to reboot before shaking herself. "Dear Oum, that explains a lot of things."

Jaune tilted his head to the side. "What things?"

Irene thought back to last week, when she had found him wearing her clothes as pajamas...

...and how she mistook him for a girl and attacked him.

She blushed and looked away. "Nothing."

* * *

 **Vale; Beacon Academy: Practice Arena...**

Jaune gulped as he walked out into the arena. Classes had ended over an hour ago, and it was now time for his punishment match with Pyrrha. He was a little nervous, though. He was fighting a four-time Mistralian champion for crying out loud! If he had known about her earlier, he would've studied her a bit more. Well, he could probably wipe the floor with her.

...probably.

Pyrrha was nowhere to be seen, so he assumed that she wasn't ready yet and used that time to ready Crocea Mors. He unsheathed the ancient blade, letting out a metallic shiny that echoed in the large room, and plugged the handle into the hole where the sword was sheathed. He activated his shield, and slid the whole assembly a bit higher onto his right arm, rotating the shield so that the sword was pointing in the same direction as his fist. He looked to his left thigh, where his Atlas TRCK .45 sat in its holster. The red metallic finish of the slide complimented the white of the lower receiver well, and he had decided to throw on a suppressor, just so that his ears wouldn't be ringing as much as if he had decided not to use it. He unholstered it and flicked off the safety, letting his arms hang by his side.

Pyrrha's rifle already had a built-in suppressor, which was probably a b*tch to maintain, but it worked out for Jaune. He wouldn't need his ear-pro. Jaune looked up as Pyrrha finally walked out, wearing her usual bronze armor. To be frank, Jaune honestly didn't like that armor. Were somebody who knew how to fight to go against her, they could easily go for her thighs, and the abdomen armor looked like it was made entirely of leather. Her shoulders were entirely bare, as well, which was another weakness as well. If he were to fight to kill her, Jaune could easily take her down in ten-seconds flat if he had Final Resort. The energy blade would cut through her aura and shield like a hot knife through butter.

He quickly checked his belt, which had two 20-round extended mags for his pistol, the extended mag currently in his pistol making three.

Pyrrha primed her rifle, letting the unfired bullet fly into the air before she caught it. Jaune watched as she held the bullet out towards him. "The match starts when the bullet hits the ground, alright?"

Jaune nodded, and dropped into his stance. His right arm was bent perpendicular to Pyrrha, his shield/sword combo shielding him from an initial attack, while the barrel of his pistol peeked over the shield's edge, aimed at Pyrrha's head.

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow at the stance her partner took, but smiled and unclipped Milo from her back, Akouo already on her left arm. The bullet in her left hand was flicked into the air, and Pyrrha quickly got into her stance.

There was a beat of silence as the bullet arched and fell to the ground. Pyrrha tensed her legs, already applying aura to her muscles, while Jaune manipulated his aura to cover the surface of his shield.

The bullet hit the ground with a light thud, and Pyrrha surged forward, Milo in its short-sword form poised for a vertical strike. Jaune immediately halted her charge with five bullets that she barely managed to dodge in time. She ducked underneath them and rolled as they whizzed over her, and she looked up to find Jaune running away from her to the right. Jaune continued to fire his pistol at her seven times, which she only managed to block two of them. The five rounds that did hit her managed to take a decent bite out of her aura.

She chased after him, injecting aura into her legs for a speed boost when Jaune suddenly turned and stabbed at her. Her momentum was too great and she narrowly avoided the attack by turning to her right. However, as a consequence she lost her footing and fell to the ground. She looked up and immediately rolled to the side as Crocea Mors slashed the ground where she had previously been. She scrambled to her feet and found herself rooted as Jaune fired at her again, forcing her to block the five rounds with her shield. She used her semblance to point the gun upwards, and Jaune was shocked for a moment, but it was enough time for Pyrrha to charge him and shield bash him away. His grip on his pistol slackened and it flew from his hand as he was sent flying back a good 40 feet away.

Jaune rolled backwards back onto his feet and planted his sword/shield into the ground, using it to stop his momentum entirely. Once he stopped Jaune disengaged Crocea Mors from its shield and pulled the sword out of the ground, twirling it in his left hand.

' _He's ambidextrous?_ ' Pyrrha noted, storing the information away.

Jaune charged at her, shield raised in front of his body and sword poised for a strike, and Pyrrha met him halfway, her Akuou clanging against the metal of Crocea Mors, and Milo grating against the surface of Jaune's shield. They both leaped backwards, and Jaune quickly recovered his gun and re-engaged his sword into his shield. He squeezed off two more rounds before he was forced to duck behind his shield, as Pyrrha had shifted Milo into its rifle form and fired off six shots at him. The rounds ricocheted off his shield and into random directions, and Jaune ceased to block, pointing his pistol at her and firing the remaining six rounds in his gun. Pyrrha had been reloading, and was forced to evade out of the path of the bullets, but one of them managed to hit her, despite having lunged a good ten feet.

After recovering from her roll, Pyrrha slapped in a new magazine, and fired off another six shots at Jaune. Since he had already emptied his mag, Jaune holstered his pistol as he blocked Pyrrha's shots, before again disengaging Crocea Mors from his shield.

As Pyrrha reloaded, he started to walk towards her slowly, and Pyrrha tensed for a charge when all of a sudden, he disappeared. Pyrrha quickly shifted Milo into its short-sword form and looked around frantically, only for him to appear right in front of her, sword raised high. She quickly used her semblance to redirect the attack, but Jaune let go of the sword, flowed a large amount of aura into his hand and hammer fisted her head into the ground. Pyrrha lay there for a second, dazed. After a second, she quickly attempted to roll to the side to avoid another punch, but she was blocked as Jaune planted his foot in her way, and she took an aura-enhanced punch straight to the stomach, robbing her of all the breath in her lungs.

Jaune jumped away from her as she rolled onto her stomach while slashing at him with Milo, weakly pushing her self up. She looked up at the board in the room and saw that she was in the yellow zone at 26%, while Jaune was still in the green at 78%.

She was dangerously close to losing, but as she tried to push herself to her feet her arms gave out under her and she fell back to the ground. She looked back up and found Jaune running to her, his weapons all stowed away and a look of concern on his face. Pyrrha smiled and rolled onto her back, breaths coming out labored and ragged.

Jaune slid on his knees and stopped beside her, eye checking for any lasting or lethal injuries. Pyrrha rested a hand on his knee and shook her head.

"Don't worry, I'm fine." She mumbled, her hand coming up to feel her abdomen for anything broken. Finding nothing to be broken, she pulsed her aura and healed all of the small cuts and bruises from the fight. She rolled her shoulder and heard it crack, and she let out a sigh as she lay back down onto the floor. Jaune was sitting cross-legged now, and he looked down at her curiously while she stared at the ceiling.

"You're a lot better than I thought." She panted out, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. Jaune smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head.

"Th-Thanks."

Pyrrha's gaze returned to the ceiling. "Who trained you?"

Jaune looked at her in confusion at the sudden question. "Huh?"

"Who trained you to fight that well?" Pyrrha asked, rolling onto her side and propping her head up with her arm.

"Oh, a friend of mine from Atlas. She was in the military and a huntress."

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow at that, and she played with her hair a little at the mention of a girl.

"I-Is she a family friend?" She asked.

Jaune shook his head. "Nah, but she is considered family. To me at least."

Pyrrha didn't know whether or not to feel relieved or concerned. "I see. A-Anyway, you fought well. I enjoyed our spar."

Jaune nodded, unfolding his legs and rocking forward back onto his feet. He turned to her and offered his hand, which she accepted and used to pull herself up. Her joints were a bit sore, and she was exhausted, but she would be able to push through. She just hoped that her team didn't have any plans for today. And there was still the backpack...

Pyrrha did feel shame for looking through her partner's stuff, truly she did. But she was very curious as to why Jaune of all people, known for wearing his heart on his sleeve, is hiding something, and what it is. Perhaps tonight...

* * *

 **Vale; Beacon Academy: Team RWBY Dorm...**

Ruby tossed another _Firearms Weekly_ magazine to the side with a sigh. Yet another thing that failed to hold her attention. Her partner, the ever-icy Weiss Schnee was below her at their shared desk, studying for the test tomorrow. Since she was in study mode, she wouldn't be much fun. Yang was with Blake in town, doing some light shopping and to, 'have a girl's night out', as Yang had put it, despite the fact that it was still 2:00 in the afternoon.

The red-themed leader rolled onto her back and let her head hang upside down off the ledge of her make-shift bunk-bed. In her boredom, a multitude of random thoughts sprang into her mind; leader plans for team bonding exercises, planning for days in which she could raid Beacon's pantry for cookies, and super-cool names for team attack formations. However, one of the more surprising and random thoughts were of Jaune. Mainly, his high-tech looking watch.

When she had asked him about it the other day, he had told her that he had gotten it from a friend. To be honest, it was a bit hard to believe for her. Who has a super high-tech watch and just gives it to their friend? She wasn't sure what kind of friends Jaune had, but if he often received gifts like those, then she needed to take a few lessons from Jaune!

'...that felt a bit strange to say inside of my head...' She thought to herself.

She looked over to her partner when she closed her notebook shut with a relieved sigh. Poor girl. Ruby never liked when the Schnee heiress pushed herself to do things she didn't want to. Having been told of her past, it felt like Weiss was used to this kind of thing, and Ruby really wanted to change that. She wanted her to have fun! To enjoy life like she had! Obviously, it was the same for Blake, but Yang was handling that part.

"Hey Weiss?" Ruby called out, watching as Weiss turned around in her chair to look at her.

"Yes, Ruby?"

"Do you wanna grab a snack form the cafeteria? I heard that they have the chocolate and vanilla swirl cakes for sale today!" Ruby offered with a smile. Weiss looked away with a tilt of the head, seemingly in thought, before she shrugged and stood up from her chair with a stretch.

"I suppose I would like that. Those cakes _are_ the best in Beacon." Weiss said as she walked to the door, Ruby rolling backwards and landing in her feet into the floor. The red reaper appeared at Weiss' side as soon as the girl in White exited the room. Weiss sighed at the girl's enthusiasm, but accepted it with a light hearted smile.

A few moments of comfortable silence had passed by when Jaune stepped from around the corner ahead, looking a bit winded as if he had jogged a lap around the track. Ruby waved at him with a bright grin, and Jaune returned it with just as much expression. Weiss gave a simple wave.

Jaune didn't seemed troubled by the curt greeting and passed by them without a second glance. Ruby, however, was a bit put off.

"Weiss? Can't you be nicer to Jaune?" Ruby asked as they stepped into the elevator, Weiss pressing the button that led to the ground floor. The Schnee heiress gave a small groan at Ruby's request, a small twinge of annoyance showing in her eyes.

"Why?"

Ruby frowned. "Because he's our friend! And it's not like he's mean or a jerk to anybody! Why do you hate him so much?"

Weiss flinched at the last comment. "Hate? I don't hate him. Is that what it seems like?"

Ruby nodded, and Weiss slumped. "Look, Ruby. I don't hate Jaune. But he is just a tad bit annoying. When will he get it through his head that I am not interested?"

Ruby shook her head. "Weiss, when was the last time Jaune asked you out?"

"Last week." Weiss replied without a second thought.

"Then don't you think that he might have dropped it?" Ruby suggested. "I mean, before, he used to ask you out every day, right?"

That actually made Weiss pause. It had struck her as odd that Jaune hadn't asked her out the week prior and the days following. Perhaps Ruby was right.

"Fine," Weiss relented with a groan, "I'll give him _one_ chance and one chance only."

Ruby fist pumped and wrapped her partner in a bear hug, one which Weiss immediately struggled to get out of.

"Ruby, you dolt! Let go of me this instant!" She cried out as she wiggled in Ruby's surprisingly strong grip. Crescent Rose is a giant scythe...

Saving her thoughts on Ruby's strength for later, Weiss managed to free her left arm and promptly chopped Ruby on her head. Ruby immediately let go of Weiss and gave a cute whimper as she nursed her head. Weiss immediately felt regret as she looked at the tears welling in Ruby's eyes. Oum, it was like kicking a puppy.

"Sorry." Weiss mumbled to the side, not looking at her. Ruby shook it off and grinned.

"It's fine! I can take more than that!"

Weiss smiled, but walked out of the elevator quickly so as to avoid letting Ruby see it. Ruby sped right next to her out of the elevator, and the two walked silently down to the cafeteria, Weiss humming a quiet, peppy tune with a small watched the older girl with a smile of her own, clearly pleased that Weiss was happy. Ruby found herself just as happy, skipping alongside her partner with an almost childlike giddiness, not that she'd ever admit it. She wasn't a kid, dang it!

They made their way to the cafeteria doors, both of them pushing a different door as they entered the room. It was quite loud, and the room was filled with mostly second and third years, numbering a few hundred altogether. Looking to her left, Weiss saw that the cakes had been untouched, most of the food taken being the meals such as turkey, steak, and the like. Despite that, the line was long, and would probably end up with the two of them waiting a good half-hour for their turn. Weiss sighed, and was about to turn around and head back to the room when she was forcefully jerked back into the room, her vision becoming a blur. With a blink, Weiss found herself sitting at a table alongside, surprisingly, three members of team JNPR, sans their leader.

Pyrrha noticed the heiress' sudden appearance and gave a friendly 'hello', to which Weiss responded in kind. Nora, the more energetic member of their team seemed to be making a big deal about Jaune beating Pyrrha in a match, which made Pyrrha blush with a smile.

...wait, Jaune beat Pyrrha?

"WHAT?!" Weiss yelled, standing up and slamming her hands down onto the table. All three of the, turned to her with looks of surprise, but also looks of understanding.

"Yep! Jauney beat Pyrrha in a spar! I was there! Though they didn't know it... muahahahaha!" Nora cackled. Weiss stared at the ginger haired girl in shock and awe, her mind barely able to process the information she had just received. Weiss slowly turned to Pyrrha.

"Pyrrha, you did go easy on him, right?" Weiss asked, hoping she knew the answer. Instead, Pyrrha made a 'so-so' motion.

"I did in the very beginning, but even when I started to take the fight seriously it was already too late. I guess I shouldn't have underestimated him." Pyrrha admitted with a sheepish grin, her hands fiddling with her crimson locks of hair. Weiss' jaw hit the table, and it was at that moment that Ruby had decided to come back skipping, carrying a tray of cake for Weiss and herself.

"Hey Weiss! I got the... cakes...?" Ruby's jaunty skip had slowed down to a walk when she saw her partner's shocked expression. "What's wrong?"

Weiss didn't register Ruby's question, so the reaper had to turn to Pyrrha for answers. "What's up with Weiss?"

Pyrrha gave her a shrug. "Jaune managed to best me in a sparring match, and I believe she's just trying to process that."

At that, Ruby's eyes widened like saucers and the tray fell to the table with a loud slap. Thankfully, the cakes were unharmed. However, Ruby was in the same state of mind as Weiss, though hers was a bit more on the excitement side. Within seconds, she squealed in excitement, her hands shaking in closed fists.

"Oh my gosh really?! That's so awesome! Did he unlock his semblance?! Did he do some cool, new maneuvers?! DID HE GET A NEW WEAPON?!" Ruby's questions made Pyrrha sweatdrop, and she scratched her head.

"Well, to my knowledge he hasn't unlocked his semblance yet," Pyrrha began, "did he did do some new moves that were rather impressive. And actually, yes, he did get a new weapon. If I recall, I think it was a non-shifting pistol."

At the mention of Jaune's new gun, Ruby immediately sped off towards the dorms once more, leaving Weiss behind in the caf. A moment had passed, the three present members of team JNPR awkwardly eating their food, when Weiss had snapped out of her reverie. She looked down in surprise at the two cakes in front of her, before looking around for her partner. She turned to Pyrrha.

"Where's Ruby?"

Pyrrha shrugged as she took a bite out of her salad, covering her mouth with her fingers as she gave herself a moment to chew. When she had swallowed her food, she pointed at the door with her fork. "When I mentioned Jaune's new weapon, she disappeared. I presume she's going to be asking him about said weapon."

Weiss raised an eyebrow. A new weapon? That must have been what allowed him to win. Surely, it must be a unique weapon, so much so that even Pyrrha Nikos could not counter it. "So, a new weapon you say? It must be very impressive. What are it's known forms?" She inquired, to which Pyrrha shook her head.

"It only has one form. It's just a pistol," she answered.

Weiss couldn't believe it. A pistol? A pistol is what allowed Jaune Arc of all people to best _Pyrrha Nikos?!_

"Surely it must have some alternate form right?!" Weiss pushed.

Pyrrha sighed. In a way, she understood where the heiress was coming from. Not to say that Pyrrha was egotistical, but she knew how good of a fighter she was. She won Mistral's championship four times, for Oum's sake. She too would have been skeptical if she heard someone of Jaune's reputation beating someone like herself. Then again, Weiss didn't know that Jaune had been holding back this whole time...

She looked over to Ren and Nora, and a look of understanding passed between them. After Nora had confronted Jaune after Pyrrha and his match, Jaune had told both her and Ren about his little secret. They took it well, though they were a little put off by the fact he had neglected to tell his team of such a thing, but in the end had forgiven him. Despite that, they each wanted to have a spar with him, against his full combat potential.

That was going to be fun to watch.

Jaune had also told the three of them that he would tell team RWBY his secret as well, seeing as they were very close friends. They agreed, but they left it to him to decide when.

Speaking of Jaune, the Arc suddenly appeared right next to Pyrrha. Understandably, his sudden appearance made her jump, and she reacted reflexively by sending her elbow directly into his chest. With a grunt of pain, Jaune fell backwards onto the floor, holding his chest while gasping for air. Realizing what she had done, Pyrrha immediately went to his aid and helped him back into his seat, apologizing profusely the whole time.

"It's alright Pyrrha, sorry for appearing so suddenly!" Jaune said, rubbing at his chest while simultaneously scratching his head. Pyrrha offered to get some food for him as an apology, but he waved it off.

"I'm actually not that hungry. Ruby just took me here out of the blue..." Jaune explained, turning to said girl, who was sitting opposite of Pyrrha on his left. She was looking at his pistol, which was still in its hard case drop-down thigh holster. "Why did you bring me here again?"

Ruby swiped Jaune's gun out of his holster, holding it so tightly that Jaune swore that she would break it. Before that happened he reached out and plucked it from her hands. "Hey, c'mon. If you wanted to see my gun, you could've just asked, y'know?" Jaune scolded her as he ejected the magazine. He racked the gun once, ejecting the unfired bullet onto the table, and racked the gun again three times. He locked the slide back, and inserted his pinky into the chamber, then proceeded to pull the slide back and let it go. He then handed it to Ruby.

"Here."

Ruby held the gun gingerly now, as if it would break if she touched it wrongly in the slightest. She then saw the little device implemented at the front of the slide, right underneath the actual barrel. She observed the gun for a switch, but found none, thinking it was a flashlight.

"Hey Jaune?"

He turned to her, setting down the pistol's magazine since had just reinserted the ejected round. "Yeah?"

"What is this thing underneath the barrel?"

He looked at the thing that Ruby was pointing to, and nodded. "That's the tracking camera," he told her. "It's what allows the bullets to track their targets."

' _Ah, fuck!_ ' Jaune cursed in his head. ' _That's mil-spec technology you fucking idiot!_ '

Ruby's eyes widened almost comically, and her enthusiasm for the pistol somehow seemed to increase tenfold.

"The bullets can track their targets?!" Ruby exclaimed, her hands positively shaking with raw excitement. Jaune faked a smile, but was internally beating himself up. His internal monologue went something like this:

' _Why the fuck do you keep screwing up, Arc?! Get your shit together!_ '

Pyrrha, having not noticed the feature during their spar, was now curious as well. Weiss, however, seemed skeptical.

"Jaune, are you sure?" The Schnee heiress asked him. "Tracking projectiles are listed as a high-grade military technology. It's not something any civilian can get their hands on."

' _Dammit Weiss!_ ' Jaune cursed.

"R-Really? I mean, that's what the guy at the surplus told me. And since my aim isn't exactly the best, I thought it would be a nice feature to have." Jaune lied, though he managed to quickly smoothen out his voice.

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Well, clearly he lied to you. Really, Jaune, you should always do your research before you purchase these kinds of things."

Jaune scratched his head in embarrassment. "Yeah. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks Weiss."

' _Nailed it._ '

* * *

 **Vale; Beacon Academy: JNPR Dorm...**

After the panic attack in the lunch room, Jaune had excused himself and left for the dorms. In the bathroom, leaning on the sink in front of the mirror with his face wet with water, Jaune lightly slapped his cheeks.

"C'mon Arc. You've been at this for months now. Keep it together." He told himself.

"Keep what together?" A voice asked from behind Jaune, startling the blonde. He whipped around and found Ren, leaning against the doorway to the bathroom. Jaune chuckled nervously and scratched his head, an old habit of his.

"I'm just... trying to figure out how to tell team RWBY about my skill level without making them upset." A half lie, but it was another one of his problems as well.

Ren nodded. "I guess that would be a problem for you," he murmured. He went over to Jaune patted his shoulder. "You shouldn't worry too much, Jaune. They're close friends, aren't they?"

Jaune looked away. "Well... I mean, Weiss is..."

"Not the point," Ren interrupted with a roll of the eyes. "The point is that they are our friends, and if they find a problem with you hiding your skills, then they will talk it out with you, like true friends. And if not, then they have no right to call you a friend."

Jaune slumped in relief. "Thanks Ren. I really needed that."

Suddenly, the smile on Ren's face turned smug. "But you do realize that they will each want a sparring match against you afterwards, right?"

And with that, Ren turned and walked away and out of the room, leaving Jaune to his despair. The blonde Arc waited a few minutes after Ren left, then he went over to the door and opened it, peeking out at the hallway. Finding no one, Jaune headed back into the dorm and opened the closet. He looked down under the door and found the small piece of paper he had planted days before, when Pyrrha had almost seen his Division gear.

Or so he thought.

Jaune had placed the palm sized piece of paper in a way so that if the door were to be opened fully, it would crinkle the paper. He always opened the door halfway, took out the paper, then did his thing. This time, the paper was crinkled, and he hadn't opened the door for a while. Granted, this was a closet, but it was _his_. Jaune looked to his right, where a similar door stood, and looked behind him across the room, where two more were present.

He could guess who had painted the one on the right a bright pink.

Looking back at his closet, Jaune took the piece of paper and found that it had two track marks on it. Open and close.

Jaune feared the worst. Someone had gone through his stuff. He quickly looked at his stockpile of items that he used to hide his gear, and found a few items out of place. The grey device on his backpack was now visible, where it wasn't before. The big box full of his X-Ray and Vav comics was placed on the right instead of the left, and the smaller box filled with textbooks was on its side.

Jaune reached over the collection of items and clothes and pulled out his backpack, doing a brief mental checklist to ensure everything was in its place. Finding nothing missing, Jaune looked around for a better hiding person hadn't looked through his gear, but had seen the backpack if he were to guess. His gaze scanned the room, and landed on the AC vent next to his bed. Jaune reached into his backpack and searched his vest without looking. He opened a pouch pulled out a multi-tool, flipping open the philips-head screwdriver. He slid himself over to the vent, bringing his back pack with him. He went to work unscrewing the screws securing the metal vent, and took it off when all four were unscrewed. The square vent was big enough to hide a person, were they to crawl on their hands and knees. It would do for now.

Jaune inserted his backpack into the ventilation chute, making it so that the glowing blue light was facing away from the room. He placed the vent against the opening and secured the vent once again. After that was done, he slipped the multi-tool into his pocket. He'd have to keep it there.

With a sigh of relief, Jaune crawled over to his closet and slid the door shut, slumping against it. He looked up at the ceiling in wonder. Who was looking through his stuff?

Why?

* * *

 **A/N: Alright guys! Phew, chapter 3! Like I said above, I'm sorry for the delay. It got pretty busy for me. But I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you all next week.**

 **IU13, signing out!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hey guys, sorry I didn't make the deadline. School's started again and I've been busy preparing for it and doing homework. Anyway, without further ado, Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Atlas; City of Stratos: Apartment Building Rooftop...**

 **5 Years ago...**

Snow. It was one thing that had almost killed him months ago, when he had first arrived here. But now, as Jaune lay back on the snow-covered gravel of the apartment bulding's roof, wearing black cargo pants, a white parka, and looking up into grey clouds that crawled across the night sky, he found himself fascinated by the endless drizzle of white water crystals. The wind was slight, and a gentle, but cool breeze washed over Jaune, painting his nose and cheeks a bright red. He heard the door leading to the rooftop open behind him, and he rolled onto his stomach and looked up to see Irene walking towards him, two thermoses of hot chocolate steaming in her hands. Her boots crunched the snow as she made her way over, before she sat down right next to him. She handed him his favorite black and blue thermos, blowing the beverage in her own white and pink one to cool it down before she had a sip.

The night was quiet, the streets were empty, and the people all slumbering deeply. All in all, everything was peaceful. Today was a weekend, a day where the two of them could relax and take a break from the constant training. Jaune had developed well over the months, but even he had his limits, and was grateful for the cool-down time. His legs were still sore from his hand-to-hand training yesterday, and his ribs were aching a bit from one of Irene's signature high-kicks.

Jaune rolled onto his back once more, thermos in hand as he looked at the sky. It was time.

He always loved the rooftop. Even at home in Vacuo, he loved to climb out his window and look up at the star-lit sky. How the cosmos glowed with a beautiful purplish-blue light, and the ever twinkling stars. The rooftop was a place to think, to mull over all the little things.

Irene shared the sentiment. The high places were always places of comfort for her. The gentle blow of the wind and the silence of isolation allowed her to meditate and think.

When they were together on a rooftop, it was a place of conversations.

"I never asked before," Jaune started, "but what do you do for a living?"

Irene, clad in a white parka and pink snow pants, tapped her chin in thought.

"You... could say I'm a Huntress," she answered, though the slight hesitation made Jaune a little curious.

"Indirect answer?"

She shook her head. "I have the qualifications for being a Huntress, but the job I do is a bit... more than that."

Jaune rolled onto his side, facing her, and propped his head up with his arm. "What do you mean by that?"

Irene took a deep breath. "I... can't really tell you," she answered. The answer disappointed Jaune, and he continued to push, despite Irene's denials and attempts to change the subject. At last, she sighed.

"Fine! I'll tell you," she relented with a groan. "Dear Oum, you're persistent. Look, I'll tell you when you're older, okay? No ifs, ands, or buts about it, understood?"

Jaune looked ready to protest, but knew better than that to do that. Once Irene put her foot down, there was no room for argument, and this was probably the best he was going to get. Jaune nodded slowly, albeit with an adorable pout adorning his face.

Irene, ever prone to an adorable Jaune, reached over and gave him another one signature moves.

The inescapable bear hug.

* * *

 **Vale: Beacon Academy; Team JNPR Dorm...**

 **After Lunch...**

Jaune leaned into his bed's headboard with a sigh. The day had been agonizingly slow, and the fact that he had basically been avoiding all of his friends for the day made it even worse. He had tried to discern who was the culprit looking through his stuff by observing all of his classes from the far back, which meant that his suspicions extended to his friends as well.

Despite that, he tried to hide his suspicions from them as best he could. After all, if he were to ruin their friendship because of that, he'd never forgive himself.

His actions proved to be fruitless, and no one seemed to be acting differently in any way, shape, or form. Although, Weiss did seem to cast him the occasional sideways glance.

' _Mental note; keep an eye on Weiss...'_

' _More so than usual..._ '

With those thoughts in mind, Jaune checked his watch again, for the umpteenth time this past week. It had been five days since his watch had turned that anxiety-inducing blue, and it irritated him to no end that it hadn't turned orange yet. Granted, the orange meant his personal life was more than likely completely wiped, but as an ex-field agent on active duty, having been put on stand-by when he knew the situation in he city was bad was like dangling a piece of meat in front of a lion.

As he examined the glossy black surface of his watch, he felt a vibration come from it. He rose an eyebrow, before he took off the watch and turned it over. Underneath the watch face was a black square with an orange circular button, placed in it's own little cavity. Before he did anything else, he went into the bathroom and locked the door, taking one of the towels and shoving it underneath the little crack between the door and the floor. The door itself was made of a dense metal, so there was no fear of anybody listening through it. He pulled the square out of its cavity and pressed the button, causing the square to expand into a scroll. He placed the scroll to his ear and answered.

"Agent E-113, please identify."

The voice that answered was female, and a familiar one at that. **"Jaune? You there?"**

Jaune groaned and slumped against the closed toilet seat. "What is it Jasmine?" He asked, his tone heavily laced with exasperation.

 **"Oh c'mon. Is that how you treat your cousin after so long?"** The girl teased, her high yet smooth voice managing to get underneath Jaune's skin in a manner only she could perfect.

"Yes Jasmine, that is how I treat my cousin after so long. _Especially when they're using a Ghost-Line to catch up_." Jaune hissed he last part into the scroll, but Jasmine merely scoffed at him. The sound of multiple gunshots sounded from her end.

"Eh... are you in the middle of something?" Jaune asked, sounding as if he were asking about the weather.

 **"Yeah -hold on a sec- DIE MOTHERFUCKERS!"** Jaune jumped at Jasmine's sudden yell, but nearly dropped his phone when he heard an explosion go off in the phone's background.

"Jasmine? Hello? Are you alright?!" He asked frantically. The explosion had been rather loud...

 **"*static*-ello? Hello? Ja-*static*-n you hear me-*static*"** Jaune breathed a sigh of relief.

"Dear Oum, Jasmine, don't scare me like that." He said into the scroll, leaning onto his knees. The static from the other side had died down a bit, though Jasmine's voice was still a bit janky.

 **"Jaune, I need you to-*static*-t me at Vale City Squar-*static*-oon as possible."**

Jaune frowned. "You want me to what?"

" **Rendezvous. City Square. *static* ASAP. Be prepared for com-*static*-nly near-*static*-gent in Vale. Hurry!"** Jasmine yelled, then the line went dead.

Jaune looked at the scroll in confusion. "Does she need reinforcements? Ah, fuck."

He looked at his watch, which was still blue.

' _Why is Jasmine activated but I'm not?_ ' He thought to himself. He shook his head and tore out the towel that was underneath the door, before swinging the door open.

Only to be met by three sets of eyes. Jaune immediately recoiled at the sight of them.

' _What the fuck are they doing here? They were supposed to be training?!_ '

"Uh, hey guys! D-Didn't know you came back," he said casually as he went over to his bed. From this angel, able to perfectly see the main doorway through the bedroom door, he saw four people standing by the desk.

"And what's team RWBY doing here?"

Pyrrha smiled at him. "Well, we were hoping that we could go spar together, as friends. Is that okay?"

He internally cringed. He had to get them to leave somehow.

"I-I can't right now. I don't feel very well..." he mumbled. Pyrrha grew worried.

Without missing a beat, Jaune looked down at his stomach.

' _...I'm gonna fucking hate myself for this.'_

Jaune winced as he pulsed his aura around his stomach, squeezing it. He felt himself become nauseous and he rushed back to the bathroom.

Pyrrha frowned at Jaune's abrupt departure, then became even more worried when the retched sounds of a person's lunch coming back up came through the door.

"J-Jaune?! Are you okay?! Are you sick?" She asked worriedly. Nora, the brave soul, skipped into the bathroom, only to immediately jump out as the scent of Jaune's vomit choked her.

"Agh! It's poisonous! Ack!" She choked out, dramatically clawing at her throats and reaching for the ceiling as she fell to the floor. Despite Nora's unique reaction, even Ren, the most composed of the four, couldn't help but cringe from the smell emanating from the bathroom. Pyrrha herself had backed away when the stench hit her. She looked over to Jaune's nightstand and found his pack of Power Mints that he used after every Bullhead ride.

She didn't honestly have enough willpower to brave the foul odor and bring the mints to her leader, and she settled for grabbing them and tossing them inside the bathroom, hearing the, plop onto the bathroom sink.

"Are you okay? Do you need us to grab you some medicine?" Pyrrha asked from the far corner of the room. She heard Jaune heave once more, before she heard a barely audible 'I'm fine' float through the door. The champion frowned, and made a mental note to take Jaune to the nurse after training.

"We'll be training, so if you need us don't be afraid to call us." Ren left the room as he said those parting words, aiming to distance himself from the hazardous smell as much as possible. Pyrrha and Nora, the latter having crawled away from the bathroom door and standing up, looked at each other and nodded, before following Ren out of the door.

Blake, who had heard the commotion and the disgusting noises, gave the three a sympathetic look over the edge of her novel. The other three members of team RWBY remained blissfully unaware of what had transpired, and come up, in that room.

"Well, it appears that Jaune won't be training today," Pyrrha announced, causing Weiss, Ruby, and Yang to look at her with confused expressions.

"And why is that?" Weiss asked, eyebrow raised. Pyrrha responded by nudging her chin towards the bedroom door.

"He seems very sick, and his stomach isn't faring very well."

Team RWBY nodded in understanding. Seconds later, Blake gagged as she picked up the smell, cursing her Faunus senses for being so strong in this particular moment. The others decided to vacate the room before the smell choked them as well, and the door to team JNPR's dorm room closed a few moments afterwards.

Jaune, his face pale and his mouth smelling foul, peaked his head out of the bathroom door to make sure his friends were gone. He snuck over to the wall seperating the bedroom from the common living area, and peaked into the living area slowly.

There was no one.

Without missing a beat, Jaune withdrew his multitool from his pocket and got to work unscrewing the screws holding the vent in place beside his bed. The vent was off a few seconds later, and he retrieved his back pack. He looked back into the common area to see if anyone had come back, but found no one.

Resuming his activities, Jaune zipped open the main compartment of his backpack. He pulled out his black battle belt with suspenders, and set them on the ground. Next he went over to his closet and dug into the box with his clothes. At the very bottom was a black, zip-up collared jacket, and a pair of grey tactical pants. Hidden in his comic book box was a pair of black combat boots and a tactical belt. He pulled out the articles of clothing and his boots from their respective boxes and immediately changed into them, placing his hoodie, jeans, and sneakers in his backpack's old location, behind all the boxes.

After he slipped on his jacket, he tucked the jacket into his pants neatly before securing his belt around his waist. He went back to his gear and slipped the black battle belt onto his shoulders. Reaching into the backpack, he withdrew his holster, which was a hard case drop-down thigh holster. He buckled the holster onto his leg and tightened the connection before buckling the holster to his battle belt. He pulled out four AUG magazines and placed them in the four pouches on his left side. He opened up the dump pouch on the back left of his battle belt and reached back into his backpack to retrieve a thigh rig. He reached back in again and placed two grenades, a flashbang, and a smoke grenade in four special pouches that were attached to the thigh rig, before securing the rig to his left thigh with buckles and connecting it all to his belt. On his right side were two pistol magazines and a radio, the latter being located on his back right and secured in a specialized holder.

He buckled his battle belt in the front, and retrieved his AUG Para from his back pack. There was already a magazine loaded, and he primed the gun, hearing the satisfying sound of a round being racked into the chamber. He went over to his nightstand and opened the drawer, where his pistol lay in its cheap holster. He took the trashy thing off of his gun and placed his trusty sidearm in its rightful place in his thigh holster. He closed the drawer and went back to his backpack, pulling out the silver container that held the parachute before zipping the back up all the way. He wouldn't need his filter, not that he knew of. He unzipped the left side pocket and pulled out a single-holed balaclava, slipping it on immediately before going over to the right side pocket and opening it to reveal a pair of shaded ballistic eye shields and a rolled up ballcap, as well as a pair of black shooting headphones.

He pulled out the eyeshields first, placing them over his eyes and pressing the, against his face. They whirred and sealed against his skin, and HUD popped up onto his shades. He tightened the strap on his shades, further securing them to his head before placing the ballcap on his head. He made sure the hat was straight and reached over to the headphones, folding them out and placing them onto his head. They also whirred and sealed against his head, before turning on.

All sound in the room was muffled for a second, and his sight was blocked by the status messages on his HUD that were linking with his aura and the CCTV tower. After a moment, everything was calibrated, and the status messages disappeared, and sound returned to his ears. The headphones actually amplified ambient sound as well, so he his sense of hearing was a lot better.

He zipped up the side pockets of his backpack and slipped the backpack onto his back, tightening it against his body, then he placed his AUG's sling around his neck and under his left shoulder. He reached over to the grey device that was located the backpack's strap, and his hand hesitated over the blue light.

If he pressed that button, he would be activated, and everyone at Beacon would never see him again.

Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Blake... everyone. They would never see him.

His fist clenched at his side. Did he really want to do this?

' _I'm sorry guys. I'll make it up to you guys by protecting everyone._ ' He thought, before his hand slammed down onto the button. The button turned orange as well as his watch, and his headphones crackled as they connected to his radio.

"Crossroads this is Division Agent designation E-113, reporting for duty, radio check, over." he said.

A female operator spoke over the radio. **"E-113 we read you 5 by 5. You forcefully activated your agent status, please report your reasoning, over."**

"Agent S-217 has requested immediate assistance in Vale over the Ghost Line. City Square threat, shots fired, over."

There was a beat of silence, before the operator spoke again. **"Roger that. We have placed a marker on your nav-interface. Assist S-217 as soon as possible, over."**

"Willco, out."

Jaune turned towards the window and swung them outwards, climbing onto the ledge and looking down at the ground, thirty feet below him. He dropped and hung onto the ledge, gently closing the windows before dropping and channeling his aura to his legs. He landed and rolled to break his fall, ending in a crouch. He looked around for any students, and found one student, though her back was turned and she was a fair distance from him. He grunted in satisfaction and made a sprint towards the docks.

He had made it halfway into the courtyard when his headphones suddenly picked up footsteps. Rapid ones. He looked to his left and found a group of people he didn't know, but due to their manner of dressing and the weapons they carried, he assumed they were students. Well, at least two of them had weapons, the boys. The two girls were running at him carrying boxes of some kind.

"You there! Stop!" The girl in the lead cried out, a fair-skinned brunette wearing a beret and sunglasses, wearing a brown sweater with some kind of corset around her abdomen, a brown scarf and a darker brown cloth around her neck. She also wore black pants that ended in black fashion boots, and her belt was adorned with a gold buckle and bullets, and a belt of bullets hung from her shoulder. She was carrying a black box in her right hand.

The girl behind her was a fair-skinned brunette rabbit Faunus with rabbit ears, brown eyes, wearing a brown and yellow themed long sleeve top and short shorts as well as yellow quarter boots, all over a black base layer, which Jaune guessed were just thermal tights. She seemed to be carrying a box-shaped camera, colored in brown and yellow. In fact, Jaune remembered her as the girl he stood up for in the cafeteria. Velvet, he believed her name was.

The boy in the very back, a tall boy with Mistralian (Asian) features, with black, shaved hair and an eye color that Jaune could not discern at this distance. He wore a green half tunic that covered his right shoulder, exposing brown armor underneath, and he wore brown bottoms that ended halfway down his shins, which then continued to a pair of armored boots. The boy was dragging a large orange sword behind him, seemingly with no trouble at all.

The last person was a dark-skinned boy with orange hair and, surprisingly, white eyes, indicating he may be blind. The boy wore a simple orange vest and brown pants that ended with a pair of brown and grey boots. On his arms were a pair of gauntlets with arm blades attached pointing backwards.

Jaune frowned as they began to get closer. He was still a fair ways away from the docks, still in the courtyard really, and if he didn't hurry they would surely catch him. He heard something scuff against the ground, and he looked to his left again to see that he dark-skinned boy had lunged at him, somehow managing to close the distance between them despite having been a good thirty feet away.

' _Shit!'_

Jaune quickly stopped his momentum, skidding to a halt and allowing the boy to pass right in front of him. The boy rolled to a stop and spun around, dropping into a stance. Jaune backed away from him, pointing his AUG at his chest. He circled around the boy in order to keep his team in his sights as well, and found that they had now caught up him. He cursed under his breath.

They weren't winded, as evident by the lack of heavy breathing. The girl with the sunglasses sauntered up to him with a smirk, Jaune backing away from her with every step she took. Her team followed close behind.

"Well, look who we have here. I don't recognize you, and you look military." The girl said, peering at him over her sunglasses. Jaune didn't dare speak, not with Velvet there. She knew his voice, or at least, she might remember it. He couldn't take that risk.

Coco frowned. "Not much of a talker, huh? Well, I hope you wouldn't mind taking off that mask of yours, and putting that gun of yours away. Y'know... before you get hurt."

Jaune damn well knew if he put his gun down he'd be incapacitated. His AUG Para 3x was chambered in 9mm hollow point, but they would be no match against these guys. His pistol, however...

* * *

Coco watched as the guy slowly pointed his gun to the ground. She smirked.

"Good. Now, I'm gonna have to say sorry, but we're gonna have to take you in for questioning. We're part of the Beacon security team, and we deal with any suspicious individuals on campus," she paused as she gestured towards his gear with her left hand. "I've never seen you before, and I make it a point to remember every student on campus. So, take off the mask and come with-"

She never got to finish, as the guy had quickly let go of his rifle and grabbed his pistol. Coco made a move to knock him out, but his pistol was already leveled at her center-mass. She heard two shots fire, and her muscles clenched up as electricity flowed through her body. She cried out in pain, and she could just barely hear seven more shots go off. Suddenly, the pain stopped, and she fell to the ground, panting, and looked over to her team, seeing that they were incapacitated as well.

Yatsu was flat on his back twitching, Fox was on his side writhing in pain, while Velvet, the poor girl, was screaming whilst twitching on her stomach.

Her muscles screamed in pain as she turned her body to look at the guy who had shot her, who was now running away. She flowed her aura through her body to ease pain, and she gave chase once she felt the pain cease completely.

She was going to knock this guy's teeth in for that.

* * *

Jaune sprinted away from them like a madman. He quickly holstered his pistol and brought his rifle back up to his shoulder. He pumped aura into his legs so that he could run faster. He heard footsteps and spared a glance behind him, only to find hat the girl with the sunglasses was chasing after him.

And boy, did she look pissed.

He pulled out his pistol and flicked on the lock-on feature, before pointing his gun behind him. Looking at the his HUD, he saw the word 'LOCKED' pop up and he fired. Three bullets came out, but there was no scream of pain. He glanced behind him again to find that the shocker rounds, which he had thankfully loaded yesterday, had been blocked by the girl's case... box... thing.

The girl then started to slow down, much to Jaune's confusion.

That is, until the box turned into a large minigun.

' _Oh, sh-_ '

Jaune's train of thought was interrupted as he was forced to roll to the left as burst of bullets hit the ground where he had once stood. Jaune clenched his teeth as he continuously pulsed his aura, causing him to disappear and reappear in different areas as he dodged the bullets. He saw the docks ahead, and he internally cheered.

His cheer died when he was forced to jump over a large, orange sword. He rolled and spun to face the Mistralian boy that had swung at him, staring at the boy in bewilderment.

' _How did he catch up to me so fast?!_ ' Jaune thought. His confusion melted away when he sensed the boy pulse his aura, disappearing in front of him.

' _He's using my move!_ ' Jaune cursed in his head, scanning for both the boy and the rest of his team. Jaune found the team running towards him, but he could not find the boy.

His instincts screamed at him to dodge, and lunged forwards as a blade passed over him. Jaune rolled to a stop, unfortunately right in front of the dark-skinned boy who had pulled his fist back for a punch. Jaune dodged to the side and fired three rounds from his rifle at the dark-skinned boy, who blocked them with his arm blades. Velvet jumped over the boy and came down onto Jaune with her foot extended, forcing Jaune to roll to the side. Her foot crashed into the ground, creating a small crater. Jaune scrambled to his feet before pointing his rifle at the tall Mistralian boy, who had tried to attack him. The boy was forced to block the shots with his sword, it was unprepared for Jaune's kick to the abdomen, sending him a good ten feet back. Velvet and the girl with sunglasses came forward, with the dark-skinned boy following them. Sunglasses bashed his gun away from her, then followed up with a kick to the chest, sending Jaune onto his back. Velvet appeared beside him and kicked him in the side, sending him upwards towards the dark skinned boy, who proceeded to slam him down into the ground.

Air was robbed from his lungs as he lay on his side on the ground. His left shoulder had taken most of the damage, but the impact was enough to leave him breathless. Jaune rolled onto his stomach to push himself up when an orange blade touched his neck. He then felt someone step on his backpack, preventing him from getting up.

Sunglasses walked in front of him and crouched, peering at him from over her spshades. "Game over." She said simply.

Jaune growled at her. "Not yet." He said lowly, and he heard a gasp. The pressure on his back loosened for a moment, but it was enough for Jaune to pulse his aura and disappear, reappearing thirty feet away from them and running for the docks once more.

He pulled out his pistol again, replaced the mag and pulsed his aura once more to gain more distance. He reappeared about fifty feet ahead from them, then he turned and pointed his gun at them.

He fired, and four fire-shock hybrid aura penetrating dust rounds pierced through their auras and hit them each on their right legs. They fell to the ground, clutching at the bullet wound that now seeped blood, and Jaune slowly holstered his gun. As long as that bullet remained lodged in the tissue, their auras wouldn't be able to heal those wounds. They'd get the proper medical treatment, and they'd live. He caught his breath for a moment, before resuming his sprint for the docks.

* * *

Coco glared at the back of the guy who had just shot and injured her team and her. Through the pain, and with gritted teeth, she checked on her wound. The bullet had been lodged into her outer calf, thankfully non-fatal. She checked on her team's wounds to make sure their's weren't life threatening. Fox had a broken shin bone, Yatsu had one in his thigh, while Velvet was clutching her foot. Tears were streaming down Velvet's face, only making Coco hate the guy more.

She watched as the guy reached the docks, then proceeded to jump off the cliff face. She watched in shock.

' _Did... Did he just commit suicide?!_ ' She thought frantically. She hastily pulled out her scroll and contacted Proffesor Goodwitch.

After two rings, she answered.

 **"Miss Adel are you alright?! I heard gunfire and I am making my way to you!"**

Coco groaned as she rolled onto her side, opposite her wound. "We're okay," she groaned out. "We've taken some wounds but they aren't fatal."

 **"What happened? Who did this?"**

Coco glanced at the docks once more.

"I don't know."

* * *

 **A/N: Alright guys, that'll wrap up today's chapter! Hopefully, A I'll be able to release the next chapter on time, but I honestly cannot be too sure.**

 **Anyway, IU13, signing out!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: More info on my hiatus at the end note.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Vale; Beacon Academy: Headmaster's Office...**

 **After Team CFVY attack...**

Coco stood rigidly in front of he headmaster's desk, her leg still flaring in pain from the gunshot wound the bastard had given her. A trip to the infirmary, a few painkillers, and a bit of rest lessened the pain somewhat, but having to stand on her leg for even a few minutes made her wounds ache. Ozpin, seemingly noticing this, stood and retrieved four chairs from a back room. Coco and her teem gratefully accepted the seats and collapsed into the leathery cushions with relief.

"I must apologize, Ms. Adel, for not accomodating my office for your team's and your injuries." Ozpin said after the team had finished groaning in content.

"It's alright sir, we understand you're very busy," Velvet was quick to reply. Coco shook her head at the bunny-girl, however. This was bun-bun's first real wound, if Coco remembered correctly, yet she was handling the pain like a champ. The fashionista smiled. One tough bunny...

"Thank you, Ms. Scarlatina," Ozpin nodded to her with a smile. "Now, I understand that you engaged a suspicious individual on school grounds?"

Coco nodded. "Yes sir."

She gulped as the headmaster rose an eyebrow and folded his hands on his desk. "I see... and may I ask why?" Coco opened her mouth to speak, but Ozpin raised his hand to halt her. "While I understand that your team is one of the second-year representatives of the Beacon Student Security Committee, I believe it would have been a much better decision to contact a third or fourth year representative team, no?"

Yatsuhashi was the one to reply. "We were the nearest available team to deal with the individual at that current moment," he explained. "Third year team DUSK was occupied with a student altercation, and the only other team that would have been able to respond would have been second-year team REDD, who was located on the other side of the campus at that time. All other teams were on missions, sir."

Ozpin nodded in understanding at the explanation. "Yes, you are correct. However, did you not think to contact a teacher? I am sure you were well aware that classes had ended prior to your engagement, correct? The teachers would have been available."

Coco reached up with her hand to rub at the back of her neck. "We uh... It kind of slipped from our minds."

Ozpin stared at her for a moment. His intense gaze made her a bit uncomfortable, but the feeling faded away when he let out a small sigh.

"Despite that, I must commend you for taking action as fast as you did. Are your wounds healing well?"

Everyone nodded. "Doc said that we'd been in mission condition in less than a few days," Velvet said.

Ozpin hummed. "I do hope your recovery goes well. Now, I must ask you about the individual that you fought. We have photos of him as well as the footage of your altercation, but there is one thing I must clarify," he said as he activated his terminal. The holographic screen expanded so that the entirety of team CFVY was able to see it, and Ozpin stood and walked around his desk so that he stood in front of them. On the screen was the footage of their fight from a building camera a couple meters away.

The footage paused when Coco crouched in front of the guy in black. "Here." Ozpin pointed at the screen with his cane, "I'm curious as to what happened here. Would you please explain?"

Nobody spoke for a second, each member waiting for another to speak up. Velvet gulped as she raised her hand shyly. "H-He spoke to us. I thought I recognized his voice."

Ozpin rose an eyebrow at her. "And do you recall whose voice you thought it was?"

"I think his name is Jaune? Jaune Arc, if I remember correctly. He was the one who helped me out when I was being harassed by Cardin."

Coco watched the headmaster's face as Velvet spoke. She expected surprise, since this was Jaune Arc they were talking about. She'd personally never met him, but he had a pretty bad reputation of losing fights, and apparently not for a lack of trying.

"Hm... I figured." Ozpin murmured. The image on the screen changed to a picture of some guy's arm wearing a black and blue watch. Aside from the blue rim, Coco immediately knew whose watch that was.

"Hey, that's the guy's watch," she exclaimed. "Why is it blue?"

Ozpin smiled at her. "One thing at a time, Ms. Adel. So you say that this watch belonged to the individual you fought in the courtyard?"

Coco nodded.

The headmaster sighed in response. "I was afraid so... thank you for your time team CFVY, you are dismissed."

"Wait, you know who this person is?!" Velvet exclaimed, standing so suddenly that her chair rocked backwards. The rest of team CFVY stared at the headmaster with the same look as Velvet's: anticipation and fury.

Ozpin gazed back at them calmly, unbothered by their emotions. "I'm afraid that those details are not to be discussed. But, have no doubt that the staff will bring this person to justice."

Yatsuhashi stood, albeit in a calmer manner than Velvet. "Headmaster, I understand that the matter is very serious and is justified in warranting secrecy, but my team and I were injured by this person. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who wants to pay this person back. Surely we can help in some way?"

Ozpin stared at the boy impassively. "Mr. Daichi, while I understand your reasoning, I can not, and therefore will not, allow you to pursue this individual. As your headmaster and superior, this is an order."

Team CFVY flinched as Ozpin uttered that last sentence. He was never known to order people around or to cite his superiority, and in doing so now, it showed how serious he was. It still sucked.

"I... We... understand, sir. If that's all, we'll be leaving." Coco stated, standing up from her chair. Fox looked at his three standing teammates and sighed, before he, too, rose to his feet. Ozpin merely nodded to the team leader, and together they strode swiftly out of his office.

A few moments after the door to his office closed, Ozpin downsized his terminal so that the screen was at its normal size. He clicked around a bit before he came upon an untitled folder. Clicking on it prompted a password, and entering "Possible Pawns" revealed a list of names. Though short in number, it held the names of some powerful people, all of them suspicious individuals. Names such as Vale Councilman Mariner Mazarine, Shade Academy's Professor Maria Canterbury, and even Haven Academy's Headmaster Leonardo Lionheart, a member of Ozpin's own circle. Despite the more powerful names on the list, there were some that were lesser known or unknown. One in particular caught Ozpin's focus. The cursor hovered over the name.

 _Jaune Arc; Beacon Academy Student_

Ozpin clicked on his name and a new window opened, revealing a scant amount of data, most of them recent. One of those pieces of data was the full photo of the image that he'd shown team CFVY. Said image was of Jaune Arc in the hallway, wearing a black hoodie with the hood up and a pair of jeans. In contrast to his usually happy and dorky personality, he had a serious expression plastered onto his face as he looked off to the side. One important detail to note was the watch that glowed a vibrant blue and adorned his left wrist. Below this specific picture was another picture, this time taken from the video of team CFVY's encounter with the man in the courtyard. It was a magnified image of the attacker during the fight, enhanced for clarity, and revealing an identical watch on his left wrist, except this time glowing a bright orange.

At the top of the page was a small note. It read: "Jaune Arc, student of Beacon Academy, suspected of espionage for unknown organization. Reasons cite deceit of combat prowess to both professors and peers, as well as fighting with intent to kill during combat class on 3/24/XX."

Ozpin typed into the note: "Possible attacker of team CFVY on campus on 4/19/XX. Identified by voice and accessory: wrist watch. Latter evidence sample unclear. AWOL."

With that, Ozpin closed the folder and his terminal, and with a groan, stood from the worn leather of his chair. He strolled up to the window behind his desk and stared outside.

This was his place to keep. Vale his city to protect, and Beacon his home to defend. His students... his children to nurture. Without looking, he reached behind him and plucked a single photo frame off of his desk. In it, stood many people, all of them his former fourth year students. Team DRAK in the front, team SPNT surrounding him... all of these children were his responsibility. Ozpin turned and put down the photo frame on his desk, beside the many other photo frames he'd collected throughout the years. He glanced at each one, enveloping himself in the memories before he turned away. In front of his chair was a folder, more specifically, Jaune Arc's student transcript folder.

After the Ursa in the Foreverfall Forest, Ozpin was surprised the boy had told him that his transcripts had been faked, and for two reasons. First, the boy had the gall to admit that his transcripts were false in the first place. Secondly, they weren't false _at all_.

Everything had been legitimate, even the stamp from the Valean Council was genuine. It had confused Ozpin at first, but he was beginning to get a grasp for Mr. Arc's plan. He supposed Mr. Arc was trying to give everyone the impression that he was weak, for reasons unknown. Perhaps he wished to make his friends think him to be a fraud, as well?

As Ozpin picked up the folder on his desk, he knew one thing was certain. For those answers, he'd have to ask the boy himself.

* * *

 **Vale; Beacon Academy: Team JNPR dorm...**

 **Nighttime...**

Jaune had a lot of questions to answer for when he got back, Pyrrha decided as she paced around their dorm. The boy had been missing for more than a few hours now, ever since they got back from their training session. At first, they'd thought that he had just gone to the city for something, and had called him to make sure, but they received no answer, only immediate voicemail. They'd called multiple times with no cigar.

As a team, they'd searched the whole campus, and failed to find him. He was gone from the academy, at least they knew that. But if he was in the city, where was he?

Pyrrha was not lost on the situation in Vale. She knew of the gangs on the streets and the escaped prisoners roaming about. It made her worry that Jaune was in danger. She knew he could handle himself, she knew that now, but it did little to assuage her worries.

"Pyrrha, I'm sure Jaune is fine. He wouldn't leave if he didn't have reason." Ren said to her from his spot on his bed. Nora was beside him, leaning on his shoulder. She and Ren were worried too, Pyrrha thought. Ren had a hard look in his eyes, and Nora, the poor girl, looked as if she was about to cry.

"I understand that, Ren. But the point of the matter is that Jaune has been missing for..." Pyrrha paused to look at the clock, "...six hours Ren! It's nine o'clock right now, and we got back here at three. For all we know, he could have been gone for longer!"

Ren opened his mouth for a rebuttal, but whatever words he had tried to say died in his mouth when he saw the frustrated tears in her eyes.

"He told us he was sick, but was that a lie too? First his prowess and now this?" Pyrrha murmured as she collapsed onto her bed, her head buried in her hands. "It's been nearly a year, Ren. When is he going to tell us the truth? Do we even know Jaune Arc?"

Ren remained silent, his gaze burning into the floor. Nora looked between the two with worry.

"Guys..." Nora whispered.

Pyrrha stood from her bed and strode towards the bathroom. "We should go to sleep," she muttered, and the bathroom door slammed shut behind her. Ren and Nora winced at the force behind the action.

They were no words spoken for the rest of the night. Nora's whimpering cries were the only sound in the darkness.

* * *

 **Vale; City of Vale: Street Level...**

 **Nighttime...**

Jaune hooked Jasmine's arm over his shoulders as they crossed the barren street and into a parking garage. They hobbled over to a secluded car in the corner and went around it, before Jaune set Jasmine down against the car's door, bother their rifles following suit.

Her brown hair was matted with sweat underneath her beanie, and her clothes were soaked in blood around her abdomen area. Cursing Jaune took her hand and placed it over her stomach.

"Jaz, I need you to put pressure on this, okay?" Jasmine did as she was told, grunting.

Jaune swung his backpack off his shoulder and onto the ground. He first unzipped her jacket slightly and took off his glove. He gently placed his index and middle finger on a spot on her neck and applied a bit of pressure. There was a beat underneath his fingers, and he nodded in satisfaction. He dug into one of the side pockets and produced a small flashlight. He turned to Jasmine with the light on and gently turned her face towards him. He lifted one of her eyelids and shined the light into her eye, then did the same with her other. Satisified, he stowed away the flashlight from where it came. He did a quick aura check and tch'd at the results. Her aura was dwindling, and wouldn't be enough to sustain her for long.

He searched through the main pocket of his backpack and pulled out a decently-sized metal cylinder. He slammed his palm against one end of the cylinder, and it opened lengthwise, revealing an array of medical supplies. Jaune nabbed the medical scissors, tweezers, alcohol, cloth, and gauze before returning to Jasmine's side. He moved her so that she was laying down on her back and gently pulled her hand away. She was bleeding too much, and if she continued at the rate she was going, she wasn't going to make it. Jaune cursed before he gathered as much aura as he could spare from his measly reserves on his hands. The white orb suddenly floated towards Jasmine's body, before her aura absorbed it. The bleeding slowed down considerably, much to Jaune's relief.

Using the scissors, he cut away at the fabric of her BDU to reveal the wound, a small hole on the left side of her abdomen. Jaune's hand grabbed for the tweezers, and he gingerly inserted them into he wound. He wished around for the bullet and pulled it out after a few seconds, throwing it away. He placed the tweezers down and went for the alcohol and cloth. He glanced at Jasmine's face. Her eyes were closed, as they had been for the last few minutes, and she was sweating profusely.

"This is gonna hurt, alright? Just focus on breathing." Jaune told her.

"I'm not a fucking civ, Jaune. Get it over with," she growled.

Jaune hesitated, but he wet the cloth with alcohol and applied it to the wound. Jasmine's hips bucked as the pain registered, and Jaune heard her teeth clack together. She hissed as Jaune gently rubbed at her wound, and exhaled in relief as the cloth fell away.

"Okay, I'm gonna need you to arch your back when I tell you to, got it? I'm applying the gauze," Jaune said, and she nodded.

Jaune pushed her shirt up a bit, and after a few minutes, her lower body was wrapped in white gauze. Jaune stood and grabbed both of their rifles, handing her rifle back to her. He put everything away back in his pack and slung the bag onto his back. Securing everything, he shoulder his rifle and ducked behind the car, peeking out with his gun raised to check for hostiles.

"Clear," he stated. He turned his head to her.

"Jaz, you okay to move? Safe house is one block from here. If we mobilize now, we can be there before the snow gets worse."

Jasmine opened her eyes, irises the color of her namesake peeking out of the parking garage and into the flurry outside.

She turned to him and nodded, groaning as she made to stand. She winced as pain flared from her stomach.

"That should be gone in a half-hour or so. I couldn't give you enough aura for it to heal faster, but it should do until we get to the safe house."

Jasmine nodded and stacked up on Jaune. She patted his shoulder to tell him she was ready. Jaune pressed the button on his ear-comms.

"Crossroads, this is E-113, requesting patch-in to Safe House Lupa, over," he spoke into the mouth piece.

"E-113, this is Crossroads, roger that. Patching you in now, out."

There was a beat of silence as Jaune was connecting to the channel.

"E-113, this is Lupa, how copy, over?" A man said on the line.

"Lupa, this is E-113, I read you five-by-five. We're currently en route to your location, ETA ten minutes, over."

"Roger that, E-113, awaiting your arrival, out."

"Alright, let's head out," Jaune said, turning to Jasmine.

They moved quickly and quietly, the only noise being the crunching of snow underneath their boots and the billowing wind that flew past their ears. The duo crossed the street and onto the sidewalk adjacent to the parking garage. Jaune held his fist to the air as they came up to a corner.

He crouched and peeked the barrel of his gun out of the corner. Cutting the pie, he peered into the street. Four Liners were walking away from them about 100 yards away, leaving... a girl, on the ground.

Jaune's grip on his gun tightened. He turned to Jasmine.

"Four hostiles 100 yards down this street, two on each side of the road, all of them facing away from us. We take them down quietly, suppressors on," he instructed.

"Can't we just leave 'em? Dead bodies'll make the Liners anxious," Jasmine replied.

"They just raped a woman, Jaz. I'm not going to let that slide."

Jasmine nodded without hesitation, and quickly ran over to the other side of the street. They both screwed on their suppressor so onto their guns.

" _I got left side_." Jaune said through the comms.

" _I got right,_ " Jasmine replied. " _On your shot."_

Jaune exhaled, letting out all of the air in his lungs before he pulled the trigger. Four muffled shots rang out, and four dead Liners hit the ground, unmoving. The two agents both looked over he shoulders for hostile safety, then proceeded to push through the street. The two advanced up to the girl in the middle of the street, bare-skinned and covered in semen, but still alive.

"Recover her, I've got you." Jaune ordered. Jasmine took off her backpack and rummaged through its contents before taking out a wool blanket. She put her backpack back on and rushed to the girl. Jaune alternated in watching ahead and behind him as Jasmine wrapped the girl in the blanket and ran over to him. She patted his shoulder once, and they pressed onwards.

The safe house was just a hundred mikes away when the girl spoke. Her eyes opened to reveal green eyes, framed by black hair.

"No more... please..." she croaked.

Jasmine heard Jaune's barely contained growl as she comforted the poor teen.

"Don't worry, they won't hurt you anymore. We're taking you somewhere safe."

The girl nodded, then began to sob quietly. The trip was over soon enough, and Jaune escorted the girl to the refugee area as Jasmine went to get treated. He sat the girl down on a secluded cot in the corner. Looking around her observed that the building they were in was some kind of dance studio.

"Wait here, I'll get you some clothes." He told her before walking away. After talking to a JTF officer, Jaune managed to secure a t-shirt, sweat pants, a parka, and the location of the locker rooms. He handed the clothes to the girl with a smile.

"What's your name?" He asked.

"Olivia Coal," she answered quietly.

"Olivia Coal... certainly fitting. I'll show you where you can change."

"Thank you."

Olivia stood, hugging pulling the blanket around her a body a bit tighter as she followed Jaune through the building. After a couple of turns and a flight of stairs, they arrived at a set of double doors, locked an access panel on the left side.

"This is the women's locker room. Apparently, men can't enter through here thanks to this panel, but women can. It's a biometrics scanner, it'll tell whether you're female or not." Jaune clarified. "Just put your hand on the panel and wait for it to finish scanning."

"Okay. Thank you, mister...?"

"Sorry," he laughed, "I'm not really allowed to tell you. Just call me Jay, alright?"

Olivia nodded, and with that Jaune walked away.

There was a sort of blissful serenity as he walked through the safe house. It wasn't large or quiet, by any means, but the tight spaces and abundance of people reminded Jaune of home a bit. Relatives filling the room to the point you couldn't even walk, or the loud chatter that resulted from dinner table gossip and complaints of daily troubles. That was the home he knew of the most, the home he'd lived in for the majority of his life, but as he came into a more quiet room, silent, actually, he was reminded on his other home. Of a quiet apartment with white walls and a single companion, of snow-covered roof tops and casual talk of the past, present, and future.

He remembered Irene. He frowned as the memories flooded him, one memory in particular.

 _A coffin closed yet empty, the hollow thud of dirt punching against the wood, and the anguished wail of a fifteen year-old boy, as his first true friend left him for good._

Jaune felt his balaclava become itchy around the eyes, and he reached up to readjust it. The fabric was moist, wettened by sorrow and nostalgia.

He continued to walk, and eventually found his way outside. The bitter cold hit him first, followed by a deep shiver that rattled his very core. The snow had gotten worse, and had elevated into a storm. The winds nearly knocked him over with their speed. But he would not fall to a mere storm. He'd braved his own storm of emotions before, this flurry could barely compare.

His rifle found its way to his hands. He had shit to do.

* * *

 **A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the delay. I know, I deserve every criticism you throw, but hear me out. Long story short, after I released the last chapter of this fic I got injured during Airsoft. I fell off the roof, two stories thankfully, and I dislocated my ankle and broke my hand and arm. The cast is coming off in a few days, so thank goodness for that. I never knew how painstaking it was to type a whole chapter one handed, with my off-hand. Fucking nightmare.**

 **Anyway, my hand's getting a bit tired now, so I'll reply to your reviews in the next chapter when I can use both hands to type (probably). Until then, I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see ya' next time.**

 **IU13, out!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Okay guys, so _now_ we should be on the regular update schedule. Unless anything else pops up, I'm hoping to keep this schedule going. Anyway, I'm going to start replying to your reviews here, starting in groups of 10-15.**

 **William. : Thanks man! I appreciate that, really I do!**

 **Infected Marine: Sorry for the hiccup, the schedule should be back to normal!**

 **Guest: Yeah, you're right. Thank you so much for your input, I'll definitely look it over once more!**

 **Kerlongsj Evert Orlejov: Hey man, thanks for checking it out! I'll keep that in mind when I have Jaune explain everything. Thanks for the review!**

 **SGTmike14: I'm glad you enjoyed! Thank you for reviewing!**

 **Reading Rainbow: Thanks for the review! Also I'm using the AUG simply because it's a gun that I personally like. And yes, the weapons from the poll will be appearing here! I'd never be so cruel!**

 **Kratos1989: Thanks for the review! That is a scene that will appear in the near future, so look forward to that!**

 **Smurphy1999: Thanks for the review, and I'm glad you enjoyed!**

 **Shashenka: Thanks for the review, and I'm glad you think so! I hope I improve more as time goes on!**

 **Arc-Angel-Of-Fire: Yeah... I kind of over looked that. I'll be fixing it later, you have my word. Thanks for the review!**

 **Potato man the semi omnipotent: I'm glad you are! Thanks for the review!**

 **Cerberus13: Thanks for the review! I'm glad you enjoyed it!**

 **Welp, onwards we go!**

 **Atlas; City of Stratos: Irene's apartment...**

 **2 years from present...**

Jaune grinned from ear to ear as he set foot into Irene's apartment complex. Two years had passed since he left here to go back to his family. The dressing down had been rough, and the guilt trips more so, but it had been worth it to endure them so that he could visit her again. His luggage, meager belongings packed away in a duffel bag, hung from his shoulders. This time, he had a new edition on him. Looking down at his left hip, his eyes landed on the white leathery handle of Aurum Mors, Crocea Mors' lesser known successor. Crocea Mors was infamous for its use in the Great War, but Aurum Mors was hardly known to the world, forged by the Arcs during the midst of battle for Julius Arc's wife, Janus Arc for her own use. It was a simple sword, forged in a way not unlike Mistral's katanas. It's blade was a mirror chrome, a flowing black wind pattern etched into the steel, and its white colored guard shaped like an oblong snowflake. The sheathe, unlike Crocea Mors, was just that, a sheath. It hang from a special clip that attached to the waist band of his pants.

His palm rested lightly on the hilt of the sword, and he prayed for the bravery of Janus Arc to be bestowed upon him for what was to come. As he stepped onto the elevator, his hand subconsciously pressing the familiar number five. As the doors closed, and some rather dull elevator music cued up, Jaune's smile grew wider with each passing moment.

After he had returned home, and after the punishments, the emotions, and the reasons, Jaune's father had trained Jaune himself, and he was confident enough to say that he was at least Huntsman-in-training material. He'd trained with his father after school, which was a pain to make up, and he would train by himself at night after supper. He'd asked his father if he could enroll into a Prep Academy, but he had told him no. Unfortunately, Jaune was too old to enroll in one of the Prep Academies, the schools before the Huntsman Academies like Beacon and Haven. Eleven years old was the maximum age limit, and by the time Jaune had gotten back home, he was already thirteen.

So, he was going to ask Irene for recommendations.

He gazed out of the elevator's glass window and observed the tall, sunlit buildings. The sun was high in the sky, and the wind was warm outside. It was summertime. When the elevator dinged, he perked up, and the doors opened to reveal a familiar, white, hallway. His feet carried him without much thought. First hallway on the right, second hallway on the left, three doors down on the left side. Room 560. He barely even lifted his hand to knock when the door swung open.

Jaune let out a very manly yell as a hand snapped out and latched onto the front of his shirt, before reeling him in like some kind of fish. He fell in a heap on the apartment floor, and grunted when he felt someone lay down on his back.

"Guuuh... Ireeeene, get off meeee..." Jaune wheezed.

"Oh, please I'm not that heavy." He heard her say. He turned his head so that he could just see her face out of the corner of his eye. She was grinning at him, and she was unchanged in appearance even after two years.

"Did ya' miss me?"

Irene scoffed as she rolled backwards, freeing Jaune from the ground. He slowly got to his feet and stumbled when Irene gave him a hug. He looked down at her and grinned as he returned the gesture. They stayed like that for a while, before Jaune ruined the moment with a single comment.

"Hey look, you're shorter than me now." He murmured into her ear, and he was appropriately sent flying into the couch behind him.

"Dick..."

Jaune laughed as Irene walked away with his bag, putting it in his room. He reorientated himself on the couch before taking his sword off of its clip and setting it down on the glass coffee table. It made a clink sound as he set it down, and the blade rang with a satisfying shing as he unsheathed it. The blade never failed to amaze him, much like Crocea Mors did. Aurum Mors shined in the sunlight that peered through the windows, and the blade's mirror finish only added to its luster.

He jumped when another sword slapped against the couch beside him. He rose an eyebrow at Irene who had just appeared beside him. She grinned when she saw his sword, and unsheathed her own.

Jaune rarely ever saw Irene's katana out of its sheath, but when ever he did, it was always a spectacle to him. Much like his own, her katana did not have an alternate form, being a simple sword. However, holes had been cut out of the blade, leaving several holes in the shape of skinny parallelograms, lined up in a row from the guard to halfway down the blade. The blade itself was colored in white and pink, patterned in a geometric triangular design across the surface of the blade.

As Jaune observed her blade, Irene observed his, nodding in approval at the design.

"So, I see you finally got yourself a blade of your own, eh?" Irene asked, and Jaune nodded in response as he handed it to her. She stepped away from him and went through some motions with the blade.

"Excellent balance... Lovely design... Did you make this?"

Jaune shook his head. "It's a hand-me-down. My father gave it to me from the family Treasury."

Irene whistled. "I knew the Arc family was famous, but damn this blade is nice. I can't even begin to imagine how much it took to forge this beauty."

Jaune shrugged. "There's nothing in the Family Codex that describes its forging. That would probably be in the Arcane Codices, but I won't have access to those until I'm 19."

"The what...?"

Jaune dismissed her question with a flippant wave of the hand. "Family history book. Anyway, what are we doing today? You have anything planned?"

At that, Irene's face morphed into a wide grin, one that usually spelled trouble for him whenever it appeared. "Oh you bet I do."

"I'm not sure I like where this is going..."

Irene set down his sword, which Jaune immediately returned to its sheathe, before circling around behind him and trapping him within her arms from behind.

"It's summertime, right?" Irene asked. A simple question.

"Yeah, and?"

One of her hands came up to comb his blonde locks, and his nervousness immediately spiked.

"Well, you see, there's this place that opens up during summer. Nice place on the outskirts of the city, and it's called Solar Peak. Do you know what it is?" Irene asked, and Jaune gulped. He had a vague idea of what it was. It was a park of some kind. It was one of the attractions listed on the brochure he read in his way over.

"It's a... park... right?" He replied hesitantly. There was malicious intent behind her voice, he was sure of it. She had something planned, something to make him suffer.

"Oh not just any park J..." she whispered. She leaned in close, right next to his ear, the warmth of her breath sending tingles down his spine.

"It's an amusement park..."

The words made Jaune freeze. Flashbacks to roller coasters and loop-de-loops came to mind, and the expression on Jaune's face slowly shifted from one of nervousness, to one of sheer, unadulterated horror. "No... no... no no no no nonononono-!"

Before Jaune could even try to escape from the devil's grasp, a hand latched onto the back of his shirt, and he was dragged over the couch and towards the door. He struggled to break her grip. "Irene no! Please! Anything but that! For the love of Oum please don't do this to me!"

He tried to look up at her, and he found that his previous assumption was right. Her eyes showed no mercy and definitely no remorse. A devilish grin peeked from behind her shoulder at Jaune, and he could only wallow in despair as he was sentenced to his fate.

 **Vale; Beacon Academy: Team RWBY dorm...**

 **Two days after Jaune Arc disappearance...**

"Okay, so where do we look again?" Yang asked, her feet propped up on their desk. Her team was there as well, Ruby on her bed, and Weiss and Blake on the floor in front of Weiss' bed. Team JNPR was there as well, but with a noticeably absent leader.

"We don't know for sure, since he left his scroll here. He might be in the city," Pyrrha said from her spot at the door. She looked over to Ren and Nora, seated on Blake's bed, and they shrugged, just as confused as her. Nora's eyes were still bloodshot. She'd been crying all day yesterday, as well as today. Ren had an arm wrapped around her shoulders for support, but it was futile.

"Well, does he have anything on his scroll? Like, I dunno, a list of locations he likes to visit or something? A clue?" Yang pressed, but sighed as Pyrrha shook her head. The redhead took out said device from a pouch behind her sash and held it up.

"We don't know. His scroll's password locked, and it's long. Twelve digits. We wouldn't be able to unlock it any time soon."

Yang held her hand out and motioned for Pyrrha to give it to her. The scroll soon found it's way into her hands, where she stowed away in her back pocket. "I know a guy who can hack it open, so I'll go right now and get this unlocked. You guys start thinking while I do that."

Everyone nodded, and Yang left the room. Pyrrha chuckled awkwardly. "Yang seems to be stealing your job, Ruby." She joked. When she looked up to the red reaper's face, she found it adorned with a frown.

"She did something like this a few months ago, before we came to Beacon. I just hope it won't end up with the club getting blown up again..." Ruby muttered the last part, but Weiss and Blake heard her, and they stared at her in disbelief. Blake groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"It's Yang... why am I not surprised?" The cat Faunus muttered, and Weiss gave a single chuckle in agreement. Team (J)NPR seemed lost.

Ren was surprisingly the one to speak first. "Okay, so we don't know where Jaune is, and we have no clue where to start. Has he mentioned any places to you guys? Restaurants, arcades, clubs even?" He asked. They all pondered a bit. It was Ruby that perked up, face alight and finger piercing the skies.

"He once told me about this place he liked to read comic books at. It's in the city, too. Maybe they might know?"

Pyrrha nodded as she took out her own scroll. "Do you know it's address?"

Ruby shook her head. "No, but I have the directions here somewhere... hold on." Ruby disappeared from her bed and was soon rifling through the desk drawer, comically sending supplies flying into the air as she dug, with Weiss chastising her as she attempted to pick everything up. Ruby smiled when a small post-it note peeked out from behind her history binder, and she snatched it and held up into the air.

"Got it!" She exclaimed before slamming the drawer shut with a bump of her hip. She unfolded the paper and read it aloud.

"From the station walk straight, turn left at second intersection, turn right in the next intersection, walk straight for four intersections and turn left on the fifth. The store is on the right past another intersection, next to a dance studio."

"Hm. From the directions the store is probably... Comic Junction." Pyrrha said as she looked up the map on her scroll. She opened the store's website. "It's open today, according to the website."

"Then let's go!" Nora exclaimed, her hand already latched onto the back of Ren's collar and prepared to drag him out of the room. Pyrrha jut out other arm to stop her.

"Not yet. We have to wait for Yang."

Nora frowned. "We're burning daylight! Every second we stay here is another second Jaune stays out there!" She hissed, pointing out the window, towards the Ciry of Vale.

The door opened with a quiet squeak, and Yang walked into the room, a scroll open and unlocked in her hands.

"Alright guys, I got it."

Blake nodded to her. "Who did you go to?"

Yang turned to her. "Hm? Oh, team DUSK, the third-year team two halls down. The guy of the team's pretty smart, knows how to hack electronics and stuff."

Ruby used her semblance and snatched the phone out of Yang's hands before reappearing on her bed, her feet kicking lazily in the air while she tapped around ont he screen. "Did you look at anything?" She asked. Her sister shook her head.

Ruby tapped on the notes app. Once the lined paper appeared on the screen, she scrolled through some of the notes. One thing caught her eye. It was note with a rather odd title. Instead of letters, there were characters of some kind.

"I found this note, but I can't read its title. I think it's in another language."

Blake motioned to have the scroll, and her eyes glanced at the screen with a raised eyebrow. "It's Mistralian, I think. Pyrrha?" The cat Faunus turned the screen towards the champion, who had to walk over to her to get a better look.

"That's Eastern Mistralian. I'm Western Mistralian, I'm afraid." Pyrrha responded with a frown.

"But Ren's Eastern Mistralian." Nora said, back to sitting on Blake's bed. Ren frowned, turning to look at his childhood friend. She gazed back up at him with her bloodshot, tear stained irises, and he instantly forgave her.

"Let me see it, please," Ren asked, hand outstretched. Blake handed it to him, and he glanced at the text.

"I roughly translates to 'Translations: Mistralian to Valean'. Is he referring to books?" A few seconds of scrolling, and Ren tch'd.

"They're just songs." He muttered, before scrolling through the other notes. There was nothing else of interest.

"Perhaps you should check his calendar? There might be something there." Weiss suggested. Ren nodded and navigated towards the aforementioned app.

Several dates popped up. Birthdays for a variety of people, dates for comic book releases, and...

"What's this?" Ren murmured. Pyrrha came over to his side and peeked over his shoulder.

"Inspections? Inspections of what? Does Beacon have inspections?" Pyrrha asked, looking up to team RWBY.

Weiss shook her head. "No, not that I know of. The only thing I can think of being counted as an inspection would be the mid-terms and final assessments."

"That's odd, then. His calendar has mid-terms and finals as a separate reminder. This inspection is something in and of itself. February 11th. That's... in a few weeks." Pyrrha spoke.

There was a brief moment of quiet as everyone thought.

"Well," Blake began, "we should check out that comic book store first. That's our only real clue right now."

Everyone nodded. Ruby turned to Pyrrha.

"What time do they close?" She asked.

"Um... nine thirty at night... So we have about four hours left," Pyrrha replied, looking at the time on her scroll which read 5:02.

"Perfect! Let's go then!" Ruby exclaimed, pointing to the door and marching towards it.

"Wait a moment." A pale hand jerked the hood of Ruby's cape backwards.

"Ow!"

"Oh, quit your complaining. And besides, have you even taken a galnce at the news?" Weiss inquired, pointing at her own scroll. "The city's a mess! For all we know the shop could be closed today!"

"I want to try now. I don't want to try later." Nora's voice cut through the heiress'. It cracked with emotion as the girl's eyes threatened to spill tears again. "Our fearless leader is part of our family, and I'm not going to leave family behind," she declared.

Weiss wisely backed off.

Ruby continued her march out of the dorm room, and this time the rest followed after her through Beacon's hallways and into the courtyard. The area was covered in snow as they marched through. They came up to the airship station and waited at the booth for registration. After a few seconds, the two people in front of them walked away, and they stepped up to the registration window.

"Team Name?" The old lady behind the window asked in a boring tone. She looked half-awake, too, her eyes drooping slightly.

"Teams RWBY and JNPR." Pyrrha replied. The lady typed some things into the computer in front of her before returning her gaze to the two teams.

"State your business."

Ruby was the one to respond this time. "We're looking for a friend in town. He hasn't come back in a while."

The lady typed something into the computer again before a bony hand reached for something behind the wall. The sound of tearing paper was heard and the lady's hand came back into view with two tickets in her grasp. She set them down on the counter and slid them underneath the window towards the group.

"You're all set. Remember that curfew is at 10:00 tonight. Stay warm." The lady called as they walked away.

"That's weird," Blake murmured, loud enough for the rest to hear her. "Curfew's normally at 12:00."

"It more than likely has to do with the situation in the city." Ren responded as they climbed into the airship. They all filled out a bench next to one of the windows that overlooked the city. Pyrrha had her scroll out and was talking with Ruby about the route to the store again. Ren had Nora's head propped against his shoulder, a hand coming up to stroke her hair every now and then. Blake, Weiss, and Yang were separated from them, having a conversation to themseleves.

"Do you think they're just making a big deal out of this?" Yang whispered, glancing over her shoulder at her friends behind her. Blake shook her head in response.

"No, I don't think so. You know how Jaune is. He's not one for just disappearing out of nowhere without any warning at all."

Yang had to admit that as a fact. Jaune was many things; awkward, clumsy, oddly chivalrous, but he was definitely not a cruel person by any means. Leaving your friends without saying goodbye? That's cruel.

"Blake is correct." Weiss agreed. "Though I find Jaune to be... rather annoying at times, he is not a bad person. This is abnormal behavior, especially for someone like himself."

Yang ran a hand through her hair. "Yeah, you're right. I've got a bad feeling about this, too."

Blake raised an eyebrow at her. "What do you mean?"

Yang shrugged. "I dunno, I just have this gut feeling that something wrong's about to happen. Like the docks."

Blake flinched at the mention of the incident. Yang must have noticed, as she immediately held up a hand in apology. "Sorry, didn't mean anything by it."

"Anyway, Yang's right." Weiss said. "Jaune had a reason to leave unannounced. The fact that he's been missing for two _days_ only makes the whole situation even more worrying. What has he been doing this whole time?"

The three pondered that thought in unison for a moment. Ruby broke away momentarily from her conversation to see that her team had taken up the exact same position at the same time. The sight made her smile. Her team was just awesome like that.

* * *

 **Vale; City of Vale: Safe House Lupa...Afternoon...**

Most times, Jaune made it a point to be cautious. Of course, there were multiple times he'd utterly fucked up, such as when someone found his Division gear, and when he'd taken less care than he'd like to admit in leaving Beacon, having to fight against a whole team in order to leave, and others that he'd never mention. Admittedly, he made more mistakes than most agents, but then again, most other agents had years and years of experience under their belts. Jaune? Two. Only two years of experience.

Still, two years of experience was a lot, considering what Jaune actually went through during those two years. And if that experience taught him anything, then it was that you can never be _too_ cautious. Being too cautious wasn't a thing.

And that's why Jaune was incrediibly cautious when he found a small piece of paper taped to the cot he'd been assigned two days prior. He glanced around for anyone looking his way, but found no one out of the ordinary. Hesitantly, Jaune detached the paper from his cot, and flipped it over. There was a small note, scribbled messily in black pen.

Jaune read the two words on the paper under his breath. "Look up...?"

Completely disregarding the note at first, Jaune stepped away from the spot where he once stood, now 5 meters diagnolly behind his previous location. Only when he was sure he was at a safe distance, did he look up.

Apparently, his caution was futile, as Jaune's vision was filled by black lace before he was knocked to the ground. He struggled against the suffocating fabric, and his efforts were rewarded as the threat lifted away. He turned to glare at the person who had just shoved their... clam... against his face, only to be met by the smug expression of his cousing, Jasmine. He groaned.

"Jasmine... what the fuck?" Jaune asked as he stood, brushing imaginary dust off of himself.

"Ah! Jaune!" Jasmine cried out, clasping her hands close to her face and swaying from side to side. "Incest is wrong!"

Jaune's eyes widened comically as he frantically looked around. Fortunately, no one heard her frankly disturbing comment, and Jaune looked physically relieved. That relief turned to anger as his glare rounded onto her.

"Jasmine! Are you trying to screw me over?!" He hissed. Jasmine casually dismissed his anger with a wave of the hand.

"Oh, please. Don't get your panties in such a twist. Nobody heard me. And besides, am I not pretty enough?" She teased, leaning forward and therefore into Jaune's personal space. The male Arc sighed before pushing her head back with his index finger.

"Idiot. Did you need something from me? Or are you genuinely here to fuck with me?"

Jasmine smirked, but Jaune was quick to shut her down. "And no, get your mind out of the gutter, you minx."

She pouted in response, but shrugged. "You're needed upstairs. The operator's got an op for you from Crossroads. Said it's important, or something."

Jaune nodded. He moved his cot to the side as Jasmine walked away. Reaching down, he picked up his battle belt first, slipping the suspenders over his shoulder then clipping the belt together. His jacket came next, slipping underneath the battle belt without being tucked in. He slipped on his head gear and tuned his headset to the radio, then slid the strap of his sling backpack over his shoulders.

He rolled his shoulders after all his gear was on, a few cracks emanating from the joints. He made to walk towards the stairway that led to the operator's quarters, but found that he could not move his feet apart, and promptly feel forward like an idiot. He threw his shoulder to the ground to avoid too much damag, and from his position laying down sideways, he looked at his feet. He growled when he saw that his boot laces had been tied together.

"Fucking... that fucking bitch!" Jaune cursed under his breath, curling into a ball so that he could reach his laces.

After a few minutes of setting himself straight, making sure that nothing else of his had been tampered with, and plotting on how to get revenge on Jasmine, he set off to the operator's quarters.

As he ascended the steps, Jaune noticed Olivia, the girl he'd saved a few days ago, wave at him from a table. He waved back at her before disappearing into the quarters. When he got inside, he was met with a man of short stature, yet he was bluky to make up for his height. Black hair combed neatly to the side, and orange eyes that seemed to glow whenever light hit them.

"Ah, Echo-113?" The man asked. Jaune nodded, and accepted the handshake when the man offered it.

"I'm Lupa's operator, Officer Pyre. We've got a lot of activity going on in the city, as I'm sure you're aware." Pyre said as he walked to a table towards the back of the room. "Here, look at this." The man activated some kind of switch, which turned on the projector abover the table and displayed a holographic map of Vale.

"Alright. So here," he pointed to a small building near the center of the city, "is where a group of rioters recently set up shop. It's a gun store, so we can assume that they're heavily armed, but we don't have enough people to deal with them. We've got one other agent that's fit for active duty here, Sierra-117. I'm assuming you know her?"

Jaune nodded. "I know her. She was the one I got here with."

"Whatever. She's already got an op in downtown Vale, so you're next onthe roster. CCTV feeds show that there's at least 15 to 20 of these bastards holed up in there, think you can handle 'em?"

Pyre's question was met with a shrug. Jaune replied, "They shouldn't be too hard to deal with. Common criminals don't pose too much of a challenge."

"Alright then. The SHD wants them dealt with pronto. Can't allow the enemy to gain any footholds, now can we?" Pyre asked with a grin, one that Jaune returned.

"Heh. No we can't."

"You'll head out as soon as possible. Since you've already got your gear on, you should probably go now, scout the building out, y'know?"

Jaune nodded. "Yeah, sounds like a good idea. Maybe I'll be back in time for dinner. What's on the menu for tonight?"

Pyre let out a jolly laugh. "Ha! Chicken fajita MREs tonight, so be sure to come back ASAP!" Jaune let out a small gasp at the answer, and was chuckling as he left the room.

As he strolled through the safe house, Olivia appeared beside him, keeping pace with his stride.

"Good afternoon Olivia, how are you today?" He greeted her.

"Good. I haven't seen you all day, where've you been?" She asked.

Jaune shrugged. "Just been busy running errands for the higher-ups and directing a few workers here and there. Apparently some people don't understand what the difference between left and right is."

"Hm. Where are you going now?"

Jaune pointed at the main exit to the safe house. "I've got another errand to do."

Olivia smiled knowingly. "Is it an errand or an 'errand'?" She asked, utilizing finger quotes.

Jaune chuckled. "It's an 'errand', Olivia."

"Well, be careful, alright? Don't want anyone getting hurt, now."

Olivia stopped walking and waved at Jaune as he continued. When he got to the main door, he went to the counter beside the door and picked up the tablet. He signed out, and the man behind the counter handed him his rifle.

"Thanks. Anything that I need to look out for while I'm out there?" Jaune asked. The man shook his head.

"Not really. Just the usual food and clothes."

Jaune nodded and holstered his rifle on the side of his pack. He pulled his pistol from his holster and went outside.

The afternoon wind was ice-cold as the last wisps of winter came in full force, snow falling lightly to the ground in the silent streets of Vale.

Jaune took not even a step when he heard footsteps through his headphones.

Turning to his left, the direction of the source of the noise, Jaune was met with a colorful group of people. Familiar people.

Seven pairs of eyes locked onto his sunglasses, and he immediately started sweating bullets.

"Oh, _shit_."

 **A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the wait. I know this chapter's a week late, and that's entirely my fault. A bit of a mistake when I was editing this chapter. Regardless, it's here now, and I'm going to try my best to make sure that everything is clear.**

 **Also, some of y'all have been PM'ing about the time setting of this fic. It's right about at the end of Volume 1, and right before Volume 2. This first arc is going to take place during the two-week break.**

 **Hopefully that cleared up some confusion. Anyway, I hope y'all enjoyed, and I'll see you on the next one!**

 **IU13, signing out!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Alright, we're back! Time for a fresh round of Agents and Beacon students!**

 **'Kay, now let's get it on!**

 **No, wait, sorry I didn't mean it like tha-!**

* * *

 **Vale; City of Vale: Safehouse Lupa...**

"Oh _shit_."

The words fell out of his words with little effort, but plenty of dread. He made a show of holstering his gun using both hands, while simultaneously hiding his watch beneath his sleeve. The ISAC link on his backpack would have to remain visible. His eyes immediately went to Blake, and he cursed silently as he saw her eyes narrow. As his friends approached him cautiously, Jaune walked forward to meet them, all the while trying to prevent himself from panicking. Did Blake see his watch? As a Faunus, her eyesight was extremely good, far above even a Huntsman's.

"Hello." He greeted them, making his voice an octave lower.

"Hello," Ruby replied, stepping up to him.

"What are a bunch of kids such as yourselves doing out here? It's dangerous in these streets."

Weiss fell in line next to Ruby, arms crossed and chin raised to look him straight in his sunglasses. "We are not children. We are Huntresses and a Huntsman in Training."

Jaune shrugged. "And? Doesn't make you any less susceptible to being attacked. We've gotten a lot of criminal activity recently, wouldn't put it past them."

"Them?" Blake questioned. Jaune winced upon hearing her voice. Her tone was cold and firm. She knew. She definitely knew. It was only a matter of time...

"I'm referring to the rioters, escaped prisoners, and other psychos roaming the streets. If you're out here for a day in the sun, you'd be better off staying in your rooms." Jaune said, turning to walk away from them. Then he felt someone tap his shoulder.

He turned his head and glanced at the onyx cat Faunus from the corner of his eye. "Yeah?"

"Where did you get that watch?" She asked, and a stream of curses flowed through Jaune's mind.

"It's... standard issue technology for my job, kid."

"Your job?"

Jaune shook his head. "Classified. Sorry, kid."

"Can I see your watch?" Blake asked. He shook his head again,

"No can do. I gotta go right now, kid. I've got shit to do and you're in the way." Jaune's tone was cold, and he marched past her slitted irises.

"I have a friend who has a watch like that." Blake called out loudly, loud enough for the rest of the group to hear. Everyone perked up.

Jaune halted immediately, and half-turned to her. She was playing with him. She knew who he was, of that Jaune had no doubt, so why hadn't she just told everyone? What was she playing? "Really? Must be a look-alike."

"His name's Jaune Arc. Have you heard of him?"

He hesitated. Oh, Oum why the fuck did he hesitate? He turned to her a bit more, putting a hand to his chin and lightly scratching it to feign confusion. "No, never heard of him. There are millions of watches like mine. Your friend probably has a similar one."

"Really? How many watches in the world glow at the rim?" She pushed.

"Many. Now, buzz off kid." He turned to leave, ready to leave them behind. Admittedly, a small part of him wanted Blake to reveal him, to rip off his mask and show reveal his face to his friends. But he knew he couldn't let that happen. They'd be in too deep if that happened.

"I don't think so."

The voice came from right behind him, and Jaune immediately whipped around, his pistol coming up to sights in a smooth, fluid motion. The sunlight glistened off of the slide of his gun as he held Blake at gunpoint. He slowly began to back away from her when he suddenly felt someone tackle him from the side. His gun clattered to the ground as he struggled to pry the person off of him. He looked down to see who had him pinned and saw that it was Ruby.

He rolled onto his back and planted his hands on her shoulders. He pushed down and slowly but surely managed to pry her away. Ruby's grip loosened enough for him to push her away with one mighty shove, and he kicked her in the abdomen, sending her a few feet away. He scrambled to his feet and found himself surrounded on all sides. Pyrrha and Ruby were the only ones not boxing him in, and the latter only for the fact that he had kicked her away.

Pyrrha was busy picking up his lost pistol from the ground.

Jaune's eyes widened behind his glasses, and his hand immediately went for his rifle. A ribbon wrapped around his arm and jerked it to the side, nearly dislocating the limb. He let out a yelp of pain as Yang ran over to his other arm and trapped it behind his back.

"Don't move, and I won't break your arm." Yang threatened.

Jaune ignored the threat and struggle anyway, grunting all the while.

"Why are you doing this to me?! I'm on your side!" He cried out as he tried to escape the blonde brawler's hold. It was futile.

"Where did you get this?" Pyrrha's voice cut through his thoughts like a knife through butter. He looked up to see her holding his pistol to the sunlight. His mind raced as he tried to think up a good excuse. As he lamented his unpainted gun, he silently tried to curse out Pyre for not having paint on hand, but he really couldn't. Who needed paint in an urban survival scenario? Suddenly, an idea popped up in his head. Good. This was his chance to throw them off.

"I found it on some rioter on the streets. Picked it up since it looked nice and felt pretty good."

"A rioter? Jaune was a rioter?" Pyrrha asked.

Jaune grunted as he shifted his position a bit. "Probably not in the sense you're talking about. Rioters here tend to be the 'kill first justify actions later' sort of guys. Not the 'throw fire hydrants and metal pipes' kind of guys, though they do that from time to time."

Yang pressed his arm a little higher, and he winced. "Quit jokin' around."

He turned to glance at her and scoffed when she glared at him. "Tch, fuck off. Damn Beacon brats, think their Headmaster saves them from the law." He muttered the last part, but apparently Yang heard him, knocked the side of his head with a hammer fist. A bit light, but still irritating.

"There's no way that was Jaune. He may have lied to us about how good of a fighter he is, but he'd never lie about his morals!" Ruby declared, marching up to him. He looked back down at her and tilted his head, before chuckling a bit.

"Really now? Seems like you got a liar on your hands. If he's lied to you about his combat prowess, then what's stopping him from lying about his moral code? Dignity?"

Ruby's eyebrows creased in anger, something Jaune had never expected to see from the little reaper.

"Don't talk about Jaune like that! He's a good guy and he'd never do bad things willingly!" She yelled, fury burning in her eyes. He was a bit taken aback by the outburst, but he leaned forward in challenge.

"How would you know, brat? Is your semblance mind reading? No, 'cuz it's speed." Jaune stated. Ruby looked about ready to burst when Pyrrha stepped in between them.

"Ruby, don't. He's trying to rile you up." The amazoness said as she guided Ruby away from him. The silver-eyed girl still glared daggers at him, but it was slightly abated. When Pyrrha turned around, however, the visciousness in her eyes would've made the biggest of predators wary.

"Do not talk about my team leader like that. He's a man of both incredible honor and dignity, and I will not allow someone to badmouth him in such a way." Pyrrha hissed in a low tone, just enough for him to hear over the freezing winds.

"Tch. Look, champ, all I'm saying is that I found that gun off of some rioter on the streets. Maybe your friend was a rioter, or the rioter I killed mugged the poor kid. Who knows?" Jaune's tone was dismissive. He looked around and found that the others were looking at him sceptically. Except for one.

His eyes turned to Nora, and his heart broke. How else could he describe the pang of guilt in his chest? The look of utter despair on the Valkyrie's face shattered nearly every ounce of will power that he had. He wanted to take off his balaclava and give her the tightest hug he could muster. He wanted to be their for her, and be her big brother again, like they used to. But he couldn't.

"I'm sorry. I can't show myself." He whispered. His eyes widened as he realized he said that out loud. Pyrrha didn't seem to hear him, but Blake, being the cat Faunus, narrowed her eyes at him. Oum, wasn't she supposed the reserved person of their group? He didn't remember her ever causing him this much trouble.

"What was tha-!" Blake started to say, that was cut off when Jaune tugged with all of his might on the ribbon that trapped his arm. She stumbled forward, and he clotheslined her, knocking her to the ground. At the same time, he channeled his aura to the arm that was trapped behind his back, and roughly pulled it down and out of Yang's grasp, before elbowing the blonde brawler right across the face. He saw Pyrrha begin to react, but he stopped her quickly by grabbing a aura-flashbang off of his belt, pulling the pin, and tossing it to her. Just as he wanted, she caught it, not even realizing her error until the device exploded in her hands, making the world go white and distorting the world's sound. The chemical that was released from the device would also gradually corode away at their auras, so they would be a lot easier to deal with in a fight.

Jaune silently thanked the company who made his headphones and the SHD for his sunglasses. He had saved his aura from the chemical by momentarily containing his aura in his body, but his head felt very light-headed because of it. But with everyone effectively stunned, Jaune promptly snatched his pistol out of Pyrrha's hands and bolted down the street. He swung around the corner of a building and leaped over an abandoned bike. He crossed the street and rolled over the hood of a car before slamming his shoulder into the door of one of the city's shops. It was closed, thankfully, so Jaune closed the door and crouched behind the window sill.

He quieted his breathing so that he could hear outside. He strained his ears.

He heard nothing at first. It was completely silent aside from the wind outside billowing through the streets. He began to relax. That was a close one, he thought. He'd wanted to reveal himself, but if he did that, they'd be in a lot of trouble, and would probably lose their chances of a Huntress/Huntsman career. He would never do that.

How the hell had they even found him? It was obvious they didn't know it was him, except maybe for Blake, but why were they around _here_ in the first place? After a quick moment of thought, he thought of the comic book store next to the safe house. He'd told Ruby about that, hadn't he?

Damn, he thought, she wasn't supposed to remember that. And talk about bad timing, too. Right as he was walking out? Really?

He began to stand up when his headphones picked up the faint sound of rapid footfalls, and they were getting closer. He immediately crouched back down with baited breath as the footsteps became louder. They stopped right outside.

"The tracks lead here." He heard someone say. Was that Ren?

"Do you think he's inside?" Ruby's voice was easily discernible.

Meanwhile, Jaune was inwardly panicking. He frantically looked around for a place to hide, but he was trapped in the corner. If he stood, they'd see him through the window. He noticed that the room was very dark, however. He looked down at his black attire. He inwardly sighed before curling himself into a ball and covering his watch and ISAC link. Hopefully the room's darkness would hide him from their sight.

'Please, for the love of Oum, don't let Blake see me.' Jaune inwardly prayed.

* * *

The store was dark when they walked in. The only light came from the small storefront windows of the shop. Pyrrha's steps were cautious as she walked, her weapons in hand and ready for an attack. Blake was behind her, using her eyesight to navigate. The rest followed closely behind, weapons prepared to fight.

Ruby walked backwards slowly, Crescent Rose in rifle form and shouldered. She was the last one to walk inside. Her weapon's barrel aimed at all of the corners of the shop, but the bright light from outside was making it hard to see.

Her breathing was near silent as she scanned the room. This guy could be anywhere, she thought. What was with him, anyway? He was so secretive, and did he have to be such a jerk to Jaune when he didn't even know him?

But Ruby had to admit. That watch was familiar, and she wouldn't accept that Jaune was a rioter. He would never kill anybody.

Right?

The match in which Ms. Goodwitch had to step in to avoid Jaune from hurting his opponent came to mind. He hadn't held back at all. He showed no mercy, from what Ruby saw. He just hacked away at his opponents aura like a madman. Was that Jaune?

Something shuffled in the corner. Which one, she wasn't sure, but she aimed at the left corner. She stopped, and Yang, who was behind her, noticed. She noticed how Ruby's gun stayed pointed at the corner below the window sill, and she readied Ember Cecilia. The two sisters approached the corner slowly.

* * *

Jaune silently gulped as the two of them approached his corner. He'd moved to avoid falling onto his ass, but that had fucked him over in the process. His left hand gripped the ISAC link even harder now, and his right twitched as he prepared to draw his gun.

They were just a few feet away from him now.

He didn't have his gun loaded with shocker rounds, so that meant he had to use his aura penetrator rounds if he had to fight them. His right hand was still covering his watch, and he slowly began to move it. It would reveal the orange of his watch, but they would be unable to react fast enough.

Oum, why was he always caught in these kinds of situations? It was bad enough with his sisters, now his friends, too?

His train of thought was broken when he saw Ruby's scythe extend into its full form.

Fuck it.

* * *

Ruby's scythe extended in her hands, ready for any melee that came her way. Yang went in front of her, since she was more suited for such a close environment. The blonde brawler made to grab at the corner. Before she could, however, a hand snatched her arm, and pulled her forward into the wall. She smashed her head against the woodand yelped, drawing the attention of everyone else. Ruby swung at the dark silhouette in the white light of the window. Her blade cut only her, and she made to pull back but a heavy impact to the shoulder deadened her arm. She cried out in pain.

She looked up to see the person's silhouette get wrapped in a ribbon, Blake's, more than likely. They were pulled further into the store before flying out of the door and into the light. Ruby's friend's rushed out of the store while Ruby focused her aura around her shoulder, but made a sound of confusion when her arm was taking a significant amount of time to heal. Why was her aura not responding like it should?

She watched from inside the store as her friends fought the man in black.

Pyrrha had stripped him of his weapons, the guns discarded in the snow. Yang rushed in with a flurry of punches and shotgun shells, but the man seemed to be keeping pace with her decently well. Blake wrapped her ribbon around his right arm as he was about to uppercut Yang, and she pulled the limb back, sending him to the ground. He rolled with the momentum and pulled the ribbon towards him, but Blake was ready for it this time. She flew at him with a leg extended, and his head whipped to the side as she kicked him right across the jaw, turning his head to see Weiss rushing at him. A black glyph appeared beneath her feet, and she sped towards him with such speed that the man, in his disorientated state, was unable to dodge. Weiss' Myrtenaster made his body jerk this way and that as she jabbed at him, a particularly powerful strike knocking him onto his back. He scrambled to his feet but was immediately knocked back down to the ground by the combination of Nora's hammer and a kick from Ren.

Pyrrha went to hold him down when a powerful pulse of aura knocked them all back. The force shattered the surrounding windows and barreled all of them into the floor, disorientating them in the process. Even Ruby herself was knocked onto her butt from inside the store.

Her arm was better, and she stood in time to see the man stand with her. Her friends were still reorientating themselves, so it was up to her to deal with him until they were back on their feet. The man seemed to realize this, too, since he turned to look at her. She used her semblance to rush him. The man seemed to expect that, to some degree. He was unable to dodge out of her way in time, and her scythe caught his leg as he lunged to the side. The force sent him spiralling into the ground, and he crashed into the snow. Ruby sped up to him slammed him into the wall with the back of her scythe, creating a small indent in the brick.

She ran up to him normally and slashed at him, but the man recovered quickly and spun out of the way, digging his foot into the ground before lunging at her. He tackled her to the ground and mounted her. She looked up at him from her position on the ground and she saw him surround his fist in aura. Her eyes widened as the hand came down, and the air was ripped out of her lungs as his fist dug into her stomach.

She gasped, unable to express the agony in which she was in.

The man was taken off of her by a yellow, fiery blur. She looked to the side with blurry vision, watching the vague silhouette of her sister wail on the man below her. There was a small respite in her assault, but the man took it, lashing out with his leg and sweeping one of her legs out from underneath her, forcing her into the splits. She gasped before the man spun his body and spin-kicked her across the face, snapping her head to the side. He then hammer-fisted the side of her neck with an aura-enhanced fist, effectively knocking her out. The man did... something with his aura, disappearing with a short pulse of light and reappearing beside Ren and Nora, both of which had recovered and were rushing to Yang's aid. The man surround his fist with aura and punched Ren in the side of the neck, knocking him out. Nora turned with Magnhild extended, and she swung at him. The man hopped over the attack and sweeped her legs out from underneath her with a low spin-kick. Once she was on the ground, he tore Magnhild out of her hands and bashed her in the face with the weapon's handle, before slamming the hammer down onto her, forming a crater in the ground and breaking her aura.

Blake's ribbon wrapped around his neck and jerked him backwards. He landed on his back, Blake kicked him in the side before he could get up. He rolled from the blow, right next to his pistol. He grabbed it and pointed it at her, but something made his hand move. Pyrrha? Regardless, Ruby watched the gun fire even as it pointed away from Blake, only to hear the cat-faunus howl in agony. She saw something red coat the snow-covered streets.

The blurriness faded from Ruby's vision, and she saw the red liquid ooze from Blake's side and left leg. Her eyes turned on him with nothing but anger and hatred. Ruby grabbed her scythe off of the ground as the man sent Weiss through a window and through several walls. She sped up to him with her scythe raised high, ready to strike him down when he disappeared. Pyrrha had been behind him with her sword poised to strike when he disappeared, leaving her in his place.

Ruby's scythe bit into Pyrrha's aura as Pyrrha's sword slashed into hers. They crashed into each other, crumpling into a heap on the concrete. Ruby, being on top, made to get off of the older girl, only for a shadow to appear over her. She turned her head and looked up at the source to see the man standing over her, Magnhild raised above his head. White aura surrounded his body as he brought the hammer down.

White aura. It felt... familiar. It felt like... Jaune's.

Magnhild slammed into Ruby's back, crushing Pyrrha into the ground as well and cratering the ground beneath them. All of the energy in Ruby's body left her as she felt her aura shattering.

She gasped for air, suddenly finding it hard to breathe. She couldn't move, but for some reason she was rising. She looked up to see the man was dragging her off of Pyrrha. She was laying next to the champion now. She watched as the man gathered all of her friends and brought them over to her on the sidewalk. Weiss lay next to her, her aura also shattered. The man then proceeded to take away all of their weapons, and putting them beside him.

With great effort and pain, Ruby pushed herself into a seated position, and turned to the man. He was by Blake, his backpack off of his shoulders and on the ground, opened. Beside him was some kind of pill-shaped container, filled with medical supplies.

He must have noticed her, as he instantly had his pistol trained on her, finger off of the trigger, but she knew that could change at any moment.

"Don't move." The man ordered. Ruby complied, a bead of sweat running down her brow. "I'm patching up your friend here so that she doesn't die before she gets to Beacon. I can't deal with her while you're still up and about. Lie back down."

Ruby glared at him. "And... why should... should I? How do I know... you're not lying?"

The man groaned. "For fuck's sake just lie down already. I can't focus if I'm constantly worrying about whether you're gonna attack me."

Ruby sent him once last hateful glare before lying back down like he ordered. He had the gun, after all. And it seemed like its bullets penetrated aura, from what Ruby saw of its affects on Blake.

Just what orginization did this guy work for that he had aura-pentrating bullets? Pyrrha was beside her, still conscious but finding it hard to move. Same as Weiss.

"Ruby," Weiss whispered. "What... what do we do?" Her voice sounded tired, and her breaths were labored.

Ruby glanced at the man before turning back to Weiss. "I don't... I don't know. We... can't do anything... not with our auras... broken and... and that gun in his hands."

"Pyrrha... are you... okay...?" Ruby panted. Pyrrha nodded slowly.

"I'm fine... but I... I can't move..."

Weiss let out a sigh. "I can't... believe this... this is what a... broken aura... does to a... a person."

Ruby heard Blake gasp in pain, and her eyes darted to the man. He had a pair of bloody tweezers in his hands, a bullet in their grasp. He lowered it out of her sight, and she heard Blake gasp again. Another bullet. So he was taking the bullets out of her so that she could heal?

The man put away his stuff and stepped away from them, his pistol holstered and his rifle in his hands. He reached up for his headphones and pressed a button on the side.

"Crossroads, this is E-113, be advised. I have a group of Beacon students on 42 North Haley's, injured and in need of medical attention."

"E-113? Crossroads?" Weiss whispered. Ruby shook her head. She didn't know either.

"Affirmative, that's what they've said. I need confirmation on their transcripts, over."

"Repeat last, over."

"Copy, over."

The man came over to them and crouched in front of Ruby.

"Alright, kid. I need you to tell me your name and the names of your friends."

Ruby turned away from him indignantly. "No way."

The sound of a gun being primed made the color drain out of her face.

"Do you really think you're in any position to argue?"

"...Ruby Rose... Yang Xiao... Long... Weiss Schnee... Blake B-Belladonna... Lie Ren... Nora Valkyrie... Pyrrha Nikos..."

After Ruby reluctantly told the man their names, the man stepped away and relayed their names to whoever was on the other line. Ruby strained to hear his words.

"Is she taking it in my place? Over."

"Argh, wilco. What's their ETA? Over."

"Affirmative. Out."

The man sighed before sitting down against the side of a car, watching them from their position on the sidewalk.

"What... What are you...?" Ruby began to ask, but the man simply held up a hand.

"I'm watching over you guys until an ambulance gets here, which, by the way, will probably be a while, considering the state of the city."

Ruby felt her aura begin to regenerate, and she planned for some kind of escape. Her aura was regenerating at a slow, but steady rate. It would more than likely be a couple of hours before her aura refilled completely. Crescent Rose lay next to the man a few feet away from her, she could see the tip of her beloved scythe's handle if she tilted her head a bit, but she wouldn't make a grab for it. Not yet. Her body still wasn't at its best, and the man would be able to react faster than she would be able to act, even with her semblance.

Suddenly, she heard someone gasp, then cough. It was a guy, judging from the deepness of the voice. She glanced at the man to see that he was walking over to them. She turned her head to Weiss, and saw that just past her was Ren, sitting up. He looked around, likely unaware of the man behind him. The man aimed his pistol at Ren.

"Don't move." The man said, and Ren froze.

"Lie back down. An ambulance is coming by shortly, so until then, I'm watching over you."

Ren did as ordered, but tilted his head back to look at the man upside down.

"Why? Why go through the trouble?" Ren asked.

"You're Beacon students," the man explained. "My superiors don't want the deaths of Beacon students to be on their hands, and frankly, I don't either."

Ren seemed to take that answer, and lied back down. A few minutes had passed when the man started humming. It was a tune none of them had heard before. At the same time, everyone aside from Yang, who was still unconcious, looked at him. He ignored the looks they gave him, and continued to hum while sitting against the car. He took out his knife as well as a pocket whetstone and began sharpening it. The ringing of grinding metal was the only sound in the streets for a while.

Meanwhile, Ruby was monitoring her aura levels, and a quick glance to either side of her told her that Weiss and Pyrrha were doing the same. The looks of concentration on their faces said it all. Her aura was at about 50%. Ruby groaned. Why was it so slow? Normally her aura would be full by now!

The man chuckled, and she looked at him. "I see you're planning up a storm, eh?" He said, his head facing her. "Don't even bother. Your aura's weak, and the effects of aura depletion, nevermind instant aura depletion, aren't something a person can just shrug off, Huntsman or not."

Weiss snorted, and his attention was immediately on her. "Something funny?' He asked. There was no malice in his tone, only curiosity.

"Nothing."

The man scoffed. "Please, nobody laughs at nothing. And I can already guess what you're snorting about. It's that girl in black and the guy, right? Don't worry, they may not have shattered auras, but I've got my eye on them. I don't think yellow's going to be waking up any time soon, either."

Weiss' face dropped, and so too did Ruby's. He had them trapped. Sure, they could probably take him on, but they didn't want to deal with that gun of his. And if his rifle fired the same kind of ammunition? The thought of running at him was nothing short of suicide. So they waited.

"Why are you keeping watch on us anyway? You said we would die, but how?" Blake asked.

The man grunted. "With the current state the city's in, six girl's such as yourselves lying helpless in the ground would undoubtedly be... taken advantage of. You'd more than likely die by the hands of the Rioters or the Liners."

"And what can you do against these people?" Ren questioned. Ruby was admittedly curious, too.

"Those morons aren't a threat to me. I can deal with them. But even they would prove to be a challenge for a group of unarmed and exhausted Huntresses and Huntsman."

Pyrrha was the one who spoke next. "You sound... confident."

"Well, if I wasn't confident I wouldn't be out here." The man replied. About a half hour had passed already, and still no sign of an ambulance. "Fucking hell, I knew there was going to be a delay but I didn't think it'd be VAS bad." He muttered.

Ruby heard Pyrrha make a sound of confusion. "What...?"

"Vale Air Station. The wait for a bullhead takes way too long, nevermind an airship. I could wait all day and still be in the waiting area."

"So you're native to Vale?" Blake asked, but the man tutted at her.

"Nice try, kitty."

Blake gasped, and the rest were shocked. "How did you...?"

"Your bow twitches every ten seconds. I noticed as I was patching you up." The man explained.

With that, they fell into an awkward silence. The ambulance was nowhere in sight, and the wailing of a siren was absent too.

"Fuck it." The man muttered, before taking off his backpack and digging into it with one hand. He pulled out a small campfire stove and a fairly large can of what Ruby could only assume to be food. He set the stove down before turning it on and placing the can on it. He took out his knife and stabbed the top of the can, cutting away at the weak metal before tearing it off. He then took a water bottle out of his pack and poured the water in the can. The smell of beef stew invaded their nostrils.

"You guys hungry?" He asked, much to their confusion.

"Why would you give us food? And what if its poisoned or something?" Blake questioned. Although Ruby couldn't see it, she had the distinct feeling that the man was rolling his eyes behind his glasses.

"You may have attacked me, but since you're Beacon students I can understand why. I know I'm not exactly the most conspicuous looking guy. And secondly, I'm eating this too, so it would be pretty stupid of me to eat poisoned food."

"How do we know we can trust you to not shoot us?" Ren asked.

"For fuck's sake, fine then! Just stay there in the snow for Oum knows how long until the ambulance arrives." The man said, turning silent after. Ruby could vaguely hear the beef being cooked, with the quiet pops of water bubbles in the can.

About a half hour passed, and the stew seemed to be done cooking, since the man made the offer one more time. "Last chance for food. I can still split it up while it's untouched."

Ruby's stomach growled quietly, only known to her and maybe Weiss and Pyrrha. She hadn't eaten anything today because Pyrrha had walked into their room right before they were going out to the caf. She internally battled herself for a moment, telling herself that she was being stupid. She had been battling with herself for the half hour the stew had taken to cook.

...but the man had a point. It would be pretty stupid of him to eat his own poisoned food, and if he wanted to kill them he would've done it by now. Plus, he was watching over them until medical help arrived, so surely he couldn't be that bad, right?

"Um..." Ruby began, and she could practically feel Weiss and Pyrrha staring at her like she was insane.

The man turned to her, and he gestured to the can that was in his hands. "You want some? I've got some cups you could use to hold your food."

"Y-Yes... please..." She murmured. The man set the can back down on the stove and dug into his pack once more, pulling out a metal cup about as large as a hockey puck, but decently tall. He procured a spoon from a small pocket in his basket and began to scoop out some stew into the cup. He gave her about five scoops before setting it down on the snow.

"Need help getting up?" He asked. Ruby shook her head and tried to sit on her own. She managed to sit upright, but only with a great deal of effort. She turned to him. The man nodded and carefully grabbed the small cup of food before walking over and handing it to her.

"Here. It's a bit hot, so you might want to set it down on the snow to cool it off a bit. Not too much, though. The warmth will be good for you in this weather." He said, and Ruby took the warm cup in her hands. She looked to him for utensils, but he only shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, I don't have a spare spoon."

"It's fine... I'll just... eat it from... the cup."

Ruby began to eat her meal, and like the man had told her, it was a bit hot. Not too much, though, and the warmth really did feel good in the cold. Apparently, her eating her food made everyone hungry, as Nora was the one to ask for food next.

He took out another cup and gave her five scoops of stew before handing it to her. One by one each of Ruby's friends began to ask for food, until everyone was chewing away at beef stew in a cup. The man sat back down after giving Weiss her share, and took out a small device from his pants pocket. It was about the size of USB stick, and was black in color. The man set it down on his lap before seemingly pressing a button on the small device. Suddenly, the sweet sound of an acoustic guitar came from him, or rather, the device.

"Sorry if you guys don't like my music selection, but just know that I'm not going to be changing it." The man said.

A voice, male, began to sing, in a language they could not understand.

Except for one.

"Those lyrics..." Ren murmured, his cup lowering. The man turned to him, his balaclava raised to reveal his mouth. The skin looked young, and his lower face was clean-shaven, so he couldn't have been too far away from them in terms of age.

"You know this song?" He asked, genuine surprise in his voice.

"Sort of... I personally don't listen to it, but a friend of mine does."

The man's head tilted questioningly as he shoveled some stew into his mouth. He chewed for a bit before swallowing. "A friend of yours, eh? Nice to know someone else appreciates this kind of music aside from myself."

"This song's called 'Eine Kleine', right?" Ren asked. "I saw the lyrics for it on his scroll."

"Is this friend of yours that Arc kid?"

Blake was the one who answered this time. "Yes, it is. He's a friend to all of us, and we need to find him soon."

The man chuckled a bit, but Ruby noticed that it seemed... off. Sad, maybe?

"Well, you can search for him tomorrow. You kids need to get yourselves treated and rested."

Nora, who had been quiet for a long time, set her empty cup down into the snow. "No. We can't." Her head was tilted down, and Ruby and the rest were unable to see her eyes. Ruby saw tears started to fall to the snow. Nora looked up at the man with a small smile. "We won't. Because we've already found him. Right, Jaune?"

* * *

 **A/N: Alright guys, so I'm very sorry for the late update— well, sort of late update. What I mean by that is that I forgot to put it in the previous chapter that I was going to have to change my update schedule a bit. That line where it said 'We should be back on the regular schedule'? Shouldn't be there. Anyway, my reason for this is that... I got a new job!**

 **I won't go into too much detail, but I had to leave my last job due to problems with my boss, but my new job is at a family restaurant of one of my old friends, so there shouldn't be too much of a problem. Now, since I have a job again, and high school on top of that, my writing time will be cut down by a fair bit, as was the case for this chapter. More than likely, I'll be updating every other week, but there might come a few times where I update a week after the previous chapter, however those times will be few and far between most likely.**

 **As for the story, I hope you enjoyed those fight scenes. I know I'm complete ass at writing fight sequences, but I felt sort of satisfied with _this one_. I don't know why. And I'll also be reworking some old chapters of the fic for the benefit of clarity and other things. Those updates might come a bit later, but expect them nonetheless. **

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and this is IU13, signing out!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** **'Kay, now I know this whole new job thing is going to mess with my updates a bit, as I've stated last chapter, but I'm still going to try to get out a chapter as soon as possible. This took a while to actually write, since I tried to follow the advice some of you guys left last chapter. Thanks for the tips! Also, you can be sure that the trainwreck that was last chapter will be fixed.**

 **Anyway, let's go!**

* * *

 **Atlas; City of Stratos: Irene's Apartment...**

 **2 years from present...**

"C'mon Jaune, hurry up, I've got something to show you!" Irene called from above. Jaune groaned as he climbed the stairs to the rooftop, his mind still a bit groggy from being woken up.

"Irene... really...? It's like... 6:00 in the morning... On a Saturday, too..." He complained, practically dragging himself up the steps. He heard Irene scoff as she scaled down the stairs to walk alongside him.

"Oh toughen up ya' big baby. Where did all that training go, eh?" She teased as she slapped him on the back.

"It went to the farthest corners of mind when I fell asleep last night." Jaune replied sarcastically, finally making it to the rooftop doorway. Irene rolled her eyes as she opened the door, before grabbing Jaune by the shoulder and shoving him out the door.

"Jeez, did you have to be so rough?" Jaune asked as he recovered from his stumble. He turned back to see that Irene had locked the door using some kind of... tool... thing... It looked like a folded up multitool. She put it in her pocket when the door clicked to signal its locking.

"Alright Jaune, keep your voice down, okay?" Irene said as she sat down on the ground. Jaune nodded, and then joined her. The wind was a bit strong up here, but it was far from being its usual bitter cold, due to it being summer. Stratos was a city located at the southern tip of Atlas, right across the ocean from the continent of Vale.

"What's up? Why am I up here at six in the morning?" Jaune questioned, still wrapped in a blanket, funnily enough.

"At this time, because not a lot of people are awake. And... to tell you about my job."

Jaune's grogginess faded away almost immediately, replaced by immense curiosity.

"Why take all these precautions?" He asked.

"My job," Irene began in a low voice, "is as an agent for the Atlas Strategic Homeland Division, or the A.S.H.D."

"The what now?"

"Exactly. The average person doesn't know what the A.S.H.D. is, nevermind what we do. Under no circumstances is the information I'm about to tell you to leave your mouth unless we're alone, do you understand?"

Jaune froze under the intense gaze his friend gave him. The seriousness in her eyes was something he was not accustomed to. If she was acting like this, then it must have been really important.

"I... I understand."

"No, I need you to promise me. I need you to swear on your name, your word."

Jaune bit his lower lip. She was really serious about this, wasn't she? With a small grunt, he stood up, only to kneel before her with his head bowed.

"I, Jaune Arc, swear to you, Irene Rhod, that my lips remain sealed unless your consent has been given. This I vow on the Arc name, for you have my word." He recited the familiar vow as he placed his right hand over his heart, while extending his left hand for Irene to take. With light fingers, she gently took his hand into her own.

"Thank you."

With that, Jaune fell back onto his butt on the ground, eager to listen.

"I... oh, where do I start...?"

Jaune perked up. "What is the A.S.H.D.?"

Irene smiled. "The A.S.H.D. is an organization devised by the International Governing Body of Remnant, or what you know as the I.G.B. The A.S.H.D. is the Atlas branch of the S.H.D, and there are the other three branches for the other three kingdoms. They're all interconnected, and report directly to the I.G.B. _exclusively_. Not even General Ironwood of Atlas is aware of this."

Jaune's eyes lit up in awe and excitement. "Really? Not even the Valean Council, Vacuoan Council, or the Mistralian Council? What about the other members of the Atlesian Council?"

Irene shook her head. "Nope, not at all. Like I said, exclusive to the I.G.B."

"And what do you do?" Jaune asked.

"We..." Irene bit her lip. "We... how do I explain this? We're like the last line of defense in case society falls to shit. I mean, as in the streets are covered with criminals, the police is unable to do anything, the Councils lose jurisdiction over the Kingdoms, those kinds of things. We're also in charge of dealing with these types of threats before they grow out of control, snip the roots, so to speak."

"Wow... that's awesome... but kind of scary as well." Jaune said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.

"Believe me, it is a scary thought, but it's better to be safe rather than sorry." Irene replied, leaning back to let Jaune absorb all the information she had told him. He looked up at her and tilted his head.

"There is one thing that's bothers me, though..." he began.

"Shoot."

"Why... Why are you telling me this?"

Irene paused. She looked up to the sky, something she did when she was deep in thought. Jaune knew that she was picking and choosing her words.

"I'm... telling you this because we need new recruits. We're not exactly that vast in terms of numbers. Each agent is trained to be able to fight against at least an A-Class Huntsman or Huntress, so individually we are strong. The problem lies within our ability to react to certain worldwide events." Irene explained, leaning forwards. Jaune scooted closer to her so that he could hear her better. "Currently, we'd have to move Division Agents from the other kingdoms if one of the kingdoms were to fall under crisis. That alone would take days, and who knows what could happen during that time? The S.H.D. is trying to increase their effectiveness in each kingdom by increasing their numbers."

Jaune nodded, hugging the blanket closer to his body. "But why me? I mean, couldn't they grab a Huntress or Huntsman or something?"

"Oh, don't get me wrong, just because we're trained to be able to go up against high ranking Huntsmen and Huntresses doesn't mean we don't have a few Huntsmen in the Division already. But... we need some people that are really under the radar. Like... teens such as yourself."

Jaune raised an eyebrow at her. "I mean, not that I'm not glad that you're considering me for this job, but why? I mean, I only have two years of Huntsman training under my belt, and I've never even gone to a Huntsmen Prep Academy. There's gotta better candidates, right?"

Irene's shoulders slumped. "That's the one thing I hate about you. You're always so quick to put yourself down." She looked into his eyes, her hands coming up to grip his shoulders. "Stop, Jaune. I don't exactly know everything about you, but I know enough to be sure that you are not nearly as bad as you make yourself out to be. You have far, _far_ , more potential than other kids your age. Do you know why?"

Jaune shook his head.

"Because you have _drive_. You're reasons for wanting to become a Huntsman are pure, and your desire for it is beyond imagination."

The Arc's eyes seemed to glow brighter as the words spilled out of Irene's mouth.

"But being a Huntsman will only to take you so far."

Jaune tilted his head in confusion at her. "What do you mean?"

"Well..." Irene stopped herself, as if reconsidering her words. "Okay, let me put it this way. What is your dream?"

Jaune didn't even miss a beat. "I want to be a hero. I want to protect people, and keep people from getting hurt."

"Yes, that's right." Irene nodded. "A Huntsman, as you know, mainly kills Grimm. Occasionally, you'll hear about a Huntsman who shuts down a robbery, or takes down a couple famous criminals, but that's it."

Jaune only seemed to be more confused by what Irene was saying. Huntsmen take down criminals all the time, right? The news always talk about how Huntsmen are always stopping crime in the kingdoms.

"The S.H.D., however, does more than that. But you won't hear about us getting any credit for our deeds. For example, that White Fang warehouse raid in Vacuo two weeks ago. Who got the credit?" Irene asked.

Jaune's head tilted backwards as he sprinted through his memories. Vacuo raid...

"It was a team of Haven Academy Students, right?"

Irene nodded, crossing her arms. "Correct. Team JSTS. They said they were going to a club when they happened to stumble upon a major White Fang operation." She scoffed. "Load of bullshit. Division Fireteam Spectra was spotted by authorities on a White Fang infiltration mission gone wrong. They had to roll with it, and thus Haven Academy got the credit. I'm honestly amazed that the press bought it."

Jaune stared at her, stupefied. "Wait, so you're saying that team of students was actually a Division team?"

"Yes."

He glanced back down at the ground, twiddling his thumbs in his lap. "I'm still confused why I'm the one you're trying to recruit. And what if I said no?"

Irene frowned. "You would be sworn to secrecy, with the threat of government force on your head."

As he processed this words, Jaune swallowed. "I... I don't know what to say..."

"It's a yes or no answer, Jaune. Will you join the Division?"

He wanted to say yes. What was stopping him? Nerves? No. He was honestly just confused. Maybe it was the fact that it was only six in the morning, or that he still didn't quite grasp just how big of an impact this decision would have on his life.

But this was his chance. If he joined this... Division, he could save lives! He'd just been offered to be trained to fulfill his dream for practically free! So naturally, his decision...

"Yes, I will."

When Irene's eyes lit up, Jaune told himself that he had made the right decision. It _was_ the right decision...

...right?

* * *

 **Vale; City of Vale: In the streets**

The man paused. No, it would be more accurate to say that he froze, his back going ramrod straight and as stiff as a board. His head turned to Nora slowly.

"And what makes you say that?" He asked, his posture relaxing... somewhat.

Nora smiled brightly at the man. "I can't forget Fearless Leader's voice! Even if you did try and make it lower. I mean, it took me a while to put it together because you were being really mean at first, but when you offered us food it made me think of Jauney, or you!"

The man tilted his head, before throwing his head back in laughter. "Hahahaha! _That's_ what you're basing it off of? Look, I'm sorry, but I'm most certainly not this 'Jaune' fellow you speak of."

Nora frowned. Everyone watched her, unsure of what was going through her mind. The man continued to chuckle to himself, but he went ignored by the rest. They watched as Nora stood, and walked over in front of him. Before she could stand before him, however, the man blinked away with a flash of aura, and appeared further away. The man's pistol immediately came up, pointed at her chest. "And what do you think you're doing?" He questioned threateningly.

"I'm proving a point."

Nora, in a surprising show of speed, dashed towards the man, electricity trailing behind her. The man fired twice, one hitting Nora in the arm, and the other in her shoulder, but she still advanced. She slapped the gun away with the back of a closed fist that crackled with lightning when she got close enough. The power behind the Valkyrie's fist knocked the gun out of the man's hands and into the snow a few feet away, and the lightning around her hand shocked him for every second it licked at his aura. Nora grabbed his arm before he could get his hands on his rifle and slammed it against the car behind him, causing him to cry out in pain. He swung at her with his other hand, aiming to knock her out with an aura-enhanced fist, but the Valkyrie batted it away. In a single swift motion, Nora ripped the mask off of the man's face.

The black cloth of the man's balaclava tore away with a loud rip, and the hat, sunglasses, and headphones flew off of his head and into the snow beside him. They all collectively gasped.

Sapphire eyes opened to glare at Nora, until they widened like saucers, no longer hidden by darkened glass.

Jaune, the person they had been looking for, stared back at them.

' _No way..._ ' Was everyone's first thought upon seeing the now unmasked Jaune. His eyes darted every which way, looking for some kind of escape, as far as they could tell. There was the clatter of metal against pavement, and they turned to see that Pyrrha had dropped her food, the stew melting away at the snow it now lay upon.

"J-Jaune...?" She whispered, her hands coming up to her mouth. Jaune looked at her, and he tried to rip his arm out of Nora's hold, but her grip remained strong. He grunted and pried at Nora's arms to no avail, until he let out a frustrated growl and turned on her.

"Dammit, Nora, let go of me!" Jaune hissed at her, glaring into her cerulean eyes with the heat of the sun.

"No!" Nora yelled back, her grip increasing in strength. Jaune winced as the Valkyrie's grip began to get too tight.

"N-Nora! My hand...!"

"Then stop trying to run away from us!"

Jaune's struggling came to an abrupt halt. His head dropped, his gaze avoiding Nora, lest he want to see the emotions that were currently visible. Ruby glanced at Nora, leaning a bit to the left so that she could see the girl's expression. Tears fell to the snow, and Nora was now audibly sobbing.

"Why? Why are you trying to leave us?!" Nora yelled, her voice cracking with emotion.

Jaune turned his gaze from the side to the floor, his head bowed. In shame, guilt, or otherwise was unknown. Either way, he remained silent, his lips set into a thin line. Pyrrha, still a bit weak but otherwise fine, stood and stumbled over to him, collapsing to her knees at his side.

"Jaune?" She called, but he did not respond. She reached out to touch his face, but winced when he flinched away from her hand.

"Jaune... what is all this? Why are you... why are you fighting us like this?"

Jaune turned to the red-haired champ with a frown. "I had no choice. You were the ones who attacked first. If only you guys knew when to back off, then this wouldn't have had to happen." He muttered to her lowly.

"Back off? Jaune, we were looking for _you_! You just-just up and left! And then when we come looking for you, you expect us to back off when we get some kind of clue? No!" Pyrrha retorted, reaching out and cupping his face in both of her hands. "Jaune, what are you doing out here? Why did you leave without telling us? And for so long?"

Jaune stared at her indifferently. "I can't tell you."

"Don't be ridiculous, Arc!" Weiss exclaimed from the campfire, rolling her eyes. "We're your friends, you can-"

"No." He interrupted the heiress with a tone of iron. "I can't. It's precisely the fact that you _are_ my friends that I can't tell you. The danger it would put you in would be more than you could handle."

"We don't care about that! What we do care about is you vanishing without so much as a word! What was with that?" Ruby questioned, setting down her empty soup cup and leaning forward towards him.

"I had to leave. I had a job, and I still need to do it. Let me go." Jaune hissed, looking at Nora, who still had yet to release him.

"No!"

"Nora! Don't make do something I'll regret!" Jaune yelled at her, his aura pulsing around his frame.

"No! I won't let you!" Nora yelled back, her own aura surrounding her.

"I warned you!"

Suddenly, there was a force like a nuclear bomb that blew them all away, crashing into the walls and somewhere down the street. Nora and Pyrrha, the two closest to him, slammed into the wall behind them, crashing through the brick and a few more walls.

Jaune scrambled for his head gear, hastily putting the hat, headphones, and sunglasses on and foregoing the now useless balaclava.

He turned to run when the sound of crumbling rubble alerted him to movement. He whipped around just in time to duck underneath a crackling fist, and countered with an elbow to Nora's side.

She stumbled slightly, but ultimately appeared unfazed by the blow, and continued to throw punches that Jaune dodged by mere inches. One punch had Nora over extend her arm slightly, and Jaune stepped in and pulled her arm towards him, causing her to stumble.

He turned his body so that his back was facing her, and he felt her front collide with his back. He guided her arm over his shoulder, jutted out his hip and pulled down on her arm, flipping her body over him and slamming her into the ground.

Jaune pulled back a fist to knock her out, but was instead tackled from the side by a blur of green. He slammed his elbow into Ren's shoulder, slackening it and allowing his escape, but not before Ren unleashed a torrent of rounds from his Stormflowers into his side, knocking Jaune's aura down by a decent amount.

The Arc stood hastily and forced Ren away with an aura-enhanced roundhouse kick to the side, sending him flying through the glass walls of a poor office building. The shards would deal some damage to his aura, no matter how insignificant.

Jaune's instincts screamed, and he leaned back in time to dodge a blur of red and gold, a javelin that had almost pinned his jacket. He had to duck as the javelin flew back the way it came, and he drew his rifle forth.

The rifle wouldn't wound them, since they only had regular fire-dust rounds, but the mini-explosions would hopefully stagger them a bit more. His hopes rang true as he fired four rounds in quick succession at Pyrrha as she charged forth. The mini-explosions made her jerk this way and that, while her aura prevented any fatal harm. Their aura still had to be a bit weak, but apparently it was enough for them to put up a decent fight.

He had to leave before they regrouped and surrounded him. Nora came at him like a lightning bolt, electricity and all, and the electricity sapped away at his aura even if her blows did!'t connect. He ducked underneath a punch aimed for his jaw and uppercutted into the Valkyrie's armpit.

She gasped in pain, and flew to the side from a sudden flurry of punches that riddled her body this way and that. He cursed as Pyrrha's javelin narrowly missed him, and he rolled out of the way of its return path. He went to bring his rifle up to bear, but as soon as it was in his hands, it was pried from his grasp by an unseen force.

He lunged backwards as Pyrrha flew in and slammed her blade down on the spot where he had been. Jaune was forced to lean back as her shield came around in a wide arc, narrowly missing his head. He threw himself to the ground as she thrusted forwards with Milo in spear form, and he rolled to the side when the blade was brought down.

"Just come with us, Jaune! We'll take you back to Beacon and we'll solve this together!" Pyrrha cried out. The wind and snow began to pick up, and the snowflakes started to form a veil of white that made it troublesome to see. If Jaune was going to escape, this was it.

He turned and pulsed his aura, reappearing further down the street and began to sprint away. He heard something akin to a zip when he felt something hook around his abdomen and stop him dead in his tracks, simultaneously knocking the wind out of him.

"I'm not letting you go, Jaune!" Ruby yelled as she pulled him. With a hard tug his body came flying towards her, and she swung Crescent Rose around her back and clotheslined him with its handle.

He slammed onto his back, his head bashing against the ground and blurring his vision. He rolled onto his stomach and made the attempt to push himself up when something began to glow underneath him. A white glyph. It spun wildly until it began to fade to black, and then a strong force held him to the ground.

His muscles strained as he tried to stand, and he looked up to see Weiss walk over to him, Ruby, and Pyrrha with Myrtenaster raised.

"Give it up, Jaune! You can't escape." Weiss shouted over the wind, her blue eyes glaring at his own. His aura was running low, thanks to Nora's lightning, and he couldn't afford to do another shockwave lest he rid himself of his aura comepletely.

Glyphs were troublesome to go against. The basic rules of thumb when dealing with them was either to avoid their area of effect completely, or to overload them until they break. It's either that, or in the case of an object-manipulation type glyph, the glyph was too small and weak to manipulate a bigger mass, but most glyph casters could manipulate something the size of a human.

Considering that Weiss was a Schnee, her glyphs would require a substantial amount of aura to break. Checking quickly, he only had one third of his aura remaining, which probably wasn't enough to shatter the glyph. What could he do?

His thoughts began to become panicked when he saw more of his friends surround him. Blake came limping towards them from down the street with Yang over her shoulders, Ren was carrying a bloodied Nora, who was pale but still breathing.

"Jaune, let us help you." Ren said from his left.

"You can't!" Jaune yelled back. Could he Pulse out of this? No, with a gravity glyph affecting him, it would be fruitless to try and move.

Wait... he had enough aura for _that_. Would it work?

Only one way to find out.

Weiss felt a slight change in the aura concentration of her glyph. Her eyes widened when she saw Jaune's aura slowly begin to surround him, like it did when he did that teleportation or shockwave ability. Given how much force that shockwave had to have taken, it was likely to be the former, given they had also chipped away at his aura already.

"He's trying to teleport!" She called out. Were she more adept with her glyphs, she would have cast an aura-dampening glyph, but she was limited to only one type of glyph at a time. For now.

The situation left them sort of helpless. They couldn't send someone into the glyph to stop him, or they would be put under the effects of the glyph as well. Weiss couldn't drop the glyph either, or that would risk Jaune being able to teleport away. They weren't in the best shape right now; as much as Weiss wouldn't admit it her body was feeling exhausted, and she could see Pyrrha and Ruby shaking a bit. The snow wasn't helping either, as it was causing their auras to work to maintain their body temperature.

In other words, they couldn't risk fighting Jaune again, not when they weren't sure of how much aura he had. Weiss glanced back at Jaune to see that his aura was getting brighter and brighter, a sign that he was closer to teleporting away again.

"He's almost there!" She cried out. "Think of something, quick! I don't know if I can hold him!"

"What do we do? We can't get in there!" Ruby exclaimed.

"I don't know, just do someth-!"

Weiss never managed to finish her retort, as she suddenly felt her glyph shatter. Her eyes widened as she looked at Jaune. He was still there, and his aura was still surrounding him, but in a different way.

Instead of the tall, lanky boy that she was expecting to see, she instead beheld an ivory hulking behemoth of an aura construct. Molded in the shape of some kind of bipedal digitigrade legged beast, with long arms and claws that looked like miniature swords, and a wretched head with an elongated face, the construct towered over all of them. Her glyph was unable to hold the hulking mass, and had shattered because of it.

Weiss looked up in fear at the beast in front of her, unable to move, her limbs petrified in fright. She could vaguely hear someone calling her name, and her head slowly moved downwards. Behind the construct, her friends stood, waving at her, and she suddenly found the will to move.

Her blood pumped in her ears as she ran in between the behemoth's legs, skidding to a stop beside her friends. Ruby appeared beside her with Crescent Rose raised.

"What do we do now, Ruby?" She asked, Myrtenaster poised to strike.

Her heart dropped a little when she saw the frown on her leader's face.

"I don't know."

The beast turned its body to them, every footfall shaking the very foundation of the city. It leaned over and lowered its head to their height, it's blue eyes narrowing at them.

"You should have just let me leave, it would've made everything a whole lot easier." Jaune's voice said from the construct, his voice amplified and reverberating through the air.

"Get ready!" Pyrrha cried out, lowering into a stance.

The beast's arm rose to the sky, its hand forming into a claw, before it brought it screaming back down.

 **A/N: Alright guys, that's the end. Sorry this came out late. I swore I put this up yesterday... Anyway, I read your guys' reviews for last chapter and let me say... some of y'all really laid into me.**

 **But that's okay! You guys gave me some really helpful information and pointed out some of the glaring flaws in the story, and I can only hope to improve. I'm a little lost on how, though, so if you guys can, can y'all offer some help? I'd really appreciate some tips, mainly on dialogue since I'm quite aware of how much dick I suck at it.**

 **And uh... to the person who sent _that_ PM, (you know who you are), my sisters are unable to judge my works, I wish they were, and I would otherwise like to say that _you_ sir or madame, are an impolite and highly insensitive pillock. I feel sorry for all those that are unfortunate enough to have to deal with your rudeness. **

***Sigh* Anyway, with _that_ out of the way, I would just like to say thank you for reading 'till this point, and I hope you enjoyed. **

**IU13, signing out!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: 'Sup guys! Glad you came back!** **Alright, now we can continue forth with the story! Onwards, my brave fellows, onwards!**

* * *

 **Dreamscape...**

Jaune's dream didn't make sense. Such was the case with most dreams, but this particular experience felt so... _real_. Like a memory being relived. Yet the events of this dream were entirely unfamiliar to him.

He stood at the base of a burning tower, looking for all the world like it was the tower of Beacon. The world around him was alight with flame, the sky shaded an angry red. Screams permeated the air, along with huge clouds of black smoke and ash. He looked down, and in his hand he held the sword of his ancestors, the legendary Crocea Mors. It's silver blade reflected the crimson sky off of its surface, and its shield lay unmarred by battle on his arm, seemingly as new as the day it was forged.

Why did he have Crocea Mors? He wielded the sword of Janus Arc, Aurum Mors, so why wasn't the katana in his grasp instead?

He had no time to question it further, because he soon found himself somewhere very high, presumably the top of the tower if the sky, smoke, and screams were any indication. The walls of what may have once been an impressive room now lay in heaping piles of pitiful rubble. A series of large metal cogs sat flat, and broken shards of glass littered the floor. There were scorch marks everywhere, from the floor, to the lucky remnants of the room's walls.

He looked straight ahead, to see two people.

A ravenette in red, and a crimsonette in bronze. Their figures were blurry, like someone had placed a piece of thin cloth over his eyes yet he could see the environment just fine. It was only the two people who were blurry. The ravenette stood, while the crimsonette kneeled on the ground, defeated.

The ravenette raised something in their arms. A bow? They raised it towards the crimsonette with their left arm, and with their right drew back.

The crimsonette lifted their head to look at the ravenette.

" _Do you believe in destiny?_ "

A woman's voice. No, a girl's? It sounded young. It rang through Jaune's mind, despite his distance, and he soon found himself sprinting full tilt towards the two. He leaped forward, turning his body towards the ravenette. He heard the twang of the bow releasing an arrow, and he closed his eyes and waited for nothingness. Except, there wasn't. He found himself somewhere else when he opened his eyes.

He found himself in the streets of a city he didn't know. The streets were aflame as well, and the screams of the people were much louder. The sky was no longer a bloody red, but now a stormy grey. Rain poured from the clouds like the tears of the gods. Grimm roamed the streets, yet he no longer held Crocea Mors, and was in fact weaponless.

But the Grimm did not notice him. Like a ghost, he wasn't perceivable to them. A Beowulf passed right through him like he wasn't even there. He watched a group of Beowulfs converge at an intersection before heading towards what was definitely Beacon Academy of Vale. Why was he in Vale?

" _Jaune._ "

Was this a memory? No, it couldn't be.

" _Jaune._ "

Bu then why was he seeing this? What wa-

 _"JAUNE!_ "

* * *

 **Island of Vytal; Bestia Wilds: S.H.D. HQ Facility:**

 **1 Year from Present**

"JAUNE!"

Jaune's head snapped up from the table as his name was called. Instinctively, he stood straight from his chair and gave a hasty salute.

"Sir!"

He looked around and blushed at the stares he was getting from the other people in the canteen. He collapsed into his seat with a sigh. Across from him was his cousin, Jasmine. Her pale yellow irises glanced at him in concern.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

He gave curt nod before digging into his food. Jasmine rose an eyebrow, unconvinced, and watched him shovel steak and mash potatoes into his mouth.

"What are we doing for drills today?" Jaune asked after chewing his food. He took a sip from his cup of OJ as he waited for her answer.

"Jaune, are you sure you're okay? You were staring into space for ten straight minutes."

Jaune frowned as he set his cup down.

"Really?" he asked. "What else was I doing?"

Jasmine shook her head. "Nothing else. Looked like you were in a trance. Was Faith messing with you again?"

"Wha-No, I don't I think so." He replied with a blush, remembering the last time Faith had used her semblance on him.

' _Damn her and her illusions_...'

Jasmine stood from her seat to throw away her tray, and came back to sit next to Jaune. She nudged him with her elbow. "So what's up? Somethin' on your mind?"

Jaune glanced down at his OJ. "I... had this... vision, I guess. I was in Vale for some reason, and I had Crocea Mors. Standing in front of Beacon, of all places."

"Why? Aren't Bleue and Rouge using it to train for Shade Academy?"

' _Yeah, they are. And that's the problem. Why would_ I _have it?_ ' Jaune thought to himself. His father had given the great-sword to his twins to get stronger while learning how to use a sword.

"I don't know why. Maybe it was just a dream."

Jasmine rolled her eyes. "Yeah, a daydream. You were still awake, dummy."

"Could it be my semblance?"

The proposition gave Jasmine pause. It was entirely possible.

"Well, maybe you should check with Irene, today," she suggested. "She's coming back from an S&D later this evening. This sort of thing's her specialty, right?"

Jaune nodded. His friend and mentor was an aura specialist, meaning she was constantly using and studying aura to the _extreme_. She was the reason why his and Jasmine's aura manipulation was as good as it was.

"Sure. What time is she gonna be back?" he asked.

"9:30."

Jaune's face contorted into an unsure frown. "I'm not sure I should catch her today, then. You know she tends to get a bit..."

"Unruly?" Jasmine filled in for him, an amused smirk on her face.

"Yes, unruly, when she gets back from a mission this late. She'll probably want to sleep first."

With that, Jaune polished off the rest of his steak and mash potatoes. He stood to return his tray when a pair of dark chocolate irises caught his gaze. His frown turned into a wide smile when he saw who they belonged to.

"Faye! Over here!" he shouted, waving at her from across the room. Faye waved back and made her way through the maze of tables that comprised the canteen. Jaune quickly threw the cup and empty plate away and set his tray in the designated spot. When he turned around, Faye stood in front of him, a small smirk on her face and a confident tilt of the hip.

"What's up, Vomit-Boy? Did ya' miss me?"

Jaune rolled his eyes before wrapping the smaller woman in a hug, a gesture which she quickly returned.

"I guess you did. What happened while I was gone?" Faye asked.

Jaune gave naught but a simple shrug. "Nothing much. A few of the other instructors were sent on missions, but some instructors came back from theirs and replaced them," he said as they walked back to his table. "Obviously, they were a bit irritated to have to train recruits after returning from an op, and we got to learn that the hard way."

Faye laughed before sitting down next to Jasmine. She offered the yellow-eyed brunette a simple 'hello' and a hug, which was returned. "So, which instructor was the worst?" she asked that question to Jaune, but Jasmine cut in with a scoff.

"Pft, like you even need to ask? Eira had us run the track in the snow a few days ago, and factoring in her semblance?" She whistled lowly. "We were out there for hours trying not to slip and slide all over the place. Jaune actually managed to bowl over Redd and Khali, and they were on the sidelines as spectators."

Jaune threw a stray crumb at her, the parcel of food bouncing harmlessly off of her forehead.

"I remember a certain someone shooting Irene's favorite baseball cap," Jaune retorted with a smirk, "as well as the chewing out that ensued."

Jasmine flushed before turning her head away with a huff. Faye gave a small chuckle before nudging Jaune.

"So, did they give decide what your first op is going to be?" She asked.

Jaune nodded. "Yeah. Solo elimination op on a drug smuggler in Vacuo. Apparently, he's been getting real buddy-buddy with the local governments, and the Vacuoan Council's getting anxious. I leave tomorrow."

"Leave it to Vacuo to let the situation worsen. And what they did they do about it?"

Jaune made a 'so-so' gesture with his hand. "They put in _some_ effort, at least. They raided a few of the guy's hideouts, but he was always gone before they kicked his door down."

Jasmine raised an eyebrow, leaning forward on her elbows. "And how'd they track him this time? Did he slip up?"

"Yeah, a couple of CCTV feeds caught him going to some bar quite frequently. It'd probably be a good place to start tracking him, 'fore I put a bullet in between his eyes."

Faye laid a hand on Jaune's shoulder, a deep frown in place. "Now hold on, are you sure you're ready for that? I mean, you've never killed anybody before."

Jaune nodded with a small smile. "Don't worry, ever since Faith signed up for the Instructor program, she's been helping recruits get over that."

"Really? How so?" Faye asked.

"You know her semblance, right?"

Faye nodded. "Illusions. Heridatary, right?"

"Yeah, anyway, she basically sent me and Jas on a fake mission last month. She used her illusions to simulate an extermination op," Jaune explained. "Jasmine took down about five hostiles, and I killed four guys myself, nearly broke down crying after the assignment was over. I found out at the beginning of _this_ month that it was all an illusion, but I'd already had a couple weeks to work through everything. It won't be a problem."

Faye's frown deepened. "Well, just be careful anyway. It won't be an illusion, this'll be the real thing."

Jaune laughed. "Don't worry about it. I'll be fine. This is what I signed up for." He stood from the table to return to his quarters. He had a mission to prepare for.

* * *

 **Vale; City of Vale: In the streets**

Weiss lunged to the side, casting a glyph that summoned ice beneath her and sliding to a halt. She conjured a wall of ice and leaped into the air, narrowly sailing over the retaliating arm of Jaune's aura construct. She watched as the appendage struck the asphalt and cratered it, sending dust and rubble into the air.

Weiss stabbed Myrtenaster into her wall of ice, casting a gravity glyph on it to hold her in place. She poured her aura into the glyph before reversing the glyph's pull, launching her from the wall and straight towards Jaune. Her rapier stabbed into the aura that surrounded him, but she was quickly sent flying as the beast jerked its shoulder back, her weapon still lodged into its body. She crashed harshly against the street. While her aura kept her from sustaining any major damage, the impact still hurt, and it left her breathless. A sudden whoosh of air flew past her as her leader charged into the fight.

Weaponless, Weiss could only use the two spare vials of ice dust she kept in her jacket. She watched Ruby run up the length of the construct's arm before slashing it repeatedly in the face with Crescent Rose. She then hooked the back of the beast's head with her scythe and fired, beheading it. The construct raised its arm to bat her away when a series of pink explosions knocked it to the ground. The ground shook as Jaune's summon fell.

The construct rolled onto its stomach before pushing itself up. Weiss saw Pyrrha jump away from its hand as it came down on the spot where she once stood. Thinking quickly, the heiress used one of her ice dust vials and encased the construct's midriff in ice, pinning it to the ground.

"Pyrrha! My weapon!" Weiss yelled out, pointing at Myrtenaster, still lodged in the base of the construct's neck.

Said champion looked at the rapier and nodded, her hand splaying before her. A dark aura surrounded Myrtenaster before it was ripped out of the beast, flying back to its owner. Weiss caught it with ease before casting an ice glyph that froze both of the construct's arms to the ground.

"Jaune! Stop this! Just come back with us, please!" Pyrrha begged. She was forced to raise her shield as Jaune managed to break the ice encasing his construct's arms, sending shards of frozen water flying every which way.

"I'm sorry, but I can't." Jaune's voice said from his summon, his voice echoing as if he were ethereal. Weiss was forced to jump back as the beast's foot slammed into the concrete next to her. She rolled to a stop, scrambling to her feet and casting a fire glyph that knocked the construct back.

"Why?! Why can't you?!" Pyrrha yelled back, charging towards her leader. She leaped over a sweeping arm and launched herself into the air, stabbing Milo into the construct's chest, stopping inches from Jaune's own abdomen. Weiss lowered Myrtenaster as the construct seemed to lax, its hands dropping to its sides.

"Come back... Please..."

Jaune's face contorted in guilt, even Weiss could see that from this distance. He truly did care for his friends, so why was this happening? Why was he fighting them like this? Sure, he may not be who they thought he was, but he clearly held them dear. That was not a lie.

"Pyrrha, I will come back. But I can't right now." Jaune said seriously, his expression hardening. "The situation is too dangerous, and I can't have you getting involved."

"But we can help!" Nora yelled, just as passionately as Pyrrha. Jaune turned to regard the Valkyrie with a sad smile. The sight was unfamiliar to the heiress. Jaune was always the one with a a smile on his face, happy and giddy like some kind of child. The expression he wore now felt off. Wrong. Even when Weiss rejected him, no matter how many times she did it, the smile never left his face. That thought made Weiss frown, and her chest ache a bit. Was all of _that_ a farce, too?

"I know you could. But it would put all of your lives at risk, more so than it is now. What I do is far more ruthless than killing Grimm. I can't endanger you like that." Jaune turned to Pyrrha again.

"So let me leave. I don't want to fight you, not when I don't need to."

* * *

Pyrrha still hung from Milo, lodged into Jaune's aura construct's chest. Her head slumped as sobs racked her body. The construct moved its arm slowly, gently taking Pyrrha into its hand, dislodging her weapon as well. The champion did nothing, and let the construct set her on the ground.

Jaune's aura dissipated a moment later, his hand still on his pistol, but otherwise looking peaceful. With tentative steps, he walked towards his partner. When he was just a step away, he wrapped his arms around her in a hug. Pyrrha apparently couldn't handle it, as she soon broke down in his arms, sobbing into his jacket. That stupid, unfamiliar jacket that only further concealed who her leader was.

"W-Will we ever know the truth, Jaune?" She looked up at the blonde Arc, eyes bloodshot from tears. He met her gaze with down cast eyes, the blue irises that she had fallen for seemingly hollow and sad.

"Maybe not. But I've always considered you all to be my friends. That much is true. But..." he looked up to regard the rest of his friends, "I understand if you don't feel the same anymore. I won't blame you." He retracted his arms from Pyrrha and stepped away, his hand coming back to rest on his pistol.

"I have to go now. And... for what it's worth... I'm sorry." Jaune turned to run back to his gear when he heard the sound of whooshing air.

"I won't let you go, Jaune!" He heard Ruby cry out.

Yang's voice trailed behind her. "Ruby, no!"

Jaune's head turned to the side, glancing at Ruby out of the corner of his eye. He blinked, and the world around him slowed.

* * *

Ruby wasn't exactly sure what happened in that moment. She had charged towards Jaune, bent on knocking him out with a hard smack to the back of the head, but when he turned to look at her, his eyes... changed. Well, at least the eye she could see had changed.

Instead of the usual sapphire blue she was used to, when Jaune blinked, his eye turned a dark orange. Weirder still, the image of a clock face appeared over the iris.

"What the...?" She muttered. She swung Crescent Rose, hoping to hook onto Jaune's midriff, but to her surprise, he hopped over the attack. Ruby stumbled as the weight of her scythe upset her balance, and glanced up to see Jaune aiming his rifle at her. In one, swift motion, he replaced the magazine with a different, and fired at her. Ruby grunted in pain as a single dart bypassed her aura and penetrated her leg, and then she screamed in agony as electricity coursed through her body, her muscles twitching, contracting far more than what was healthy.

"Ruby!" Yang yelled, before turning her now crimson irises on Jaune. "You're dead, Vomit-Boy!"

Her aura exploded as pure rage rolled off of her in waves, and she blasted off of the ground and into the air. She fired her gauntlets while airborne, sending her downwards. She reeled back and, like a meteor, crashed against the earth with enough force to crater the surrounding area.

Jaune gulped silently as Yang slowly stood from her kneeling position, looking downright murderous. A bit of nervousness set in when the rest of his friends began to stand beside her.

"Fuck..." he murmured.

* * *

' _My aura's already low. I'll have to fight conservatively if I'm going to make it out of here._ '

With that thought in mind, Jaune slowly began to walk backwards while simultaneously firing his rifle at his friends. Weiss crumpled to writhing heap, as did Blake and Ren. Yang seemed to learn from Ruby's misfortune and either dodged the darts or deflected them with her gauntlets. Pyrrha seemed to manipulate the darts with her semblance, which was only possible thanks to their decreased velocity.

He avoided firing at Nora, as she would only get stronger thanks to her semblance. Her file stated that her semblance was the harnessing of electricity, and using it to strengthen her body. It was a good semblance, Jaune supposed. But it would definitely spell his end if she ever activated it. Nora already proved to be quite the powerhouse even without Magnhild, and quite fast, too.

He risked a glance behind him and saw that his back pack was still on the ground. "Dammit, I forgot about that."

He did an internal aura check and found that his aura was at about a third. Still a lot, in comparison to his friends, so he could be a bit flexible. He closed his eyes, and with his mind's eye, he pictured the face of the grandfather clock back home.

When he opened his eyes again, time had come to a halt. In his mind, he felt two different pulses. In what way they were different, he didn't know, only that they _felt_ different. He reached for the first pulse, and the world around became a dull monochrome. He looked up and he saw himself retreating backwards, firing his rifle.

He saw him use his semblance to quickly retrieve his backpack and to try and sprint away, only for an invisible force to grab his gun, latch it to the front of his chest and drag him backwards. The visionary Jaune looked up to see Nora, Yang, and Pyrrha surrounding him, before the vision went black.

He shook his head and reached for the second pulse, and this time he saw himself use his semblance to retrieve his backpack before aura-pulsing to the rooftops. He leapt from building to building, aura-pulsing occasionally, before dropping down into an alleyway and slamming into a nearby door.

Internally, Jaune nodded.

' _Perfect_ '

Time sped back up again, but he quickly thought of his father's old watch, the face's Atlesian Numerals separating it from the grandfather clock's. When he opened his eyes again, time had slowed, but he could move freely. He threw a quick glance at his friends and found them moving towards him.

At a snail's pace.

Yang had leapt into the air, her arm pulled back to deliver what looked like one hell of a haymaker. Pyrrha had Milo in its javelin form, poised to throw it at him. Nora had recovered Magnhild and, despite her wounds, had tried to run at him.

With a small sigh he ran over to his backpack, hastily zipping it up and slinging it over his shoulders, before aura-pulsing to the rooftops. He deactivated his semblance then, letting time flow as normal. Using his aura-pulses conservatively, he traversed the concrete jungle of Vale, leaping from building to building before jumping down into an alleyway. Rolling to break his fall, he followed his vision and looked to his right, and sure enough, there was a green door in front of him. He slammed his shoulder into it, forcing it open, and fell to the floor, breaths ragged.

As he slid down against the wall, he growled as he caught his breath. He wanted to be angry at his friends for finding him, for preventing him from completing the mission, but he couldn't. They meant well, he knew that. He knew what he seemed like to them as well. A friend who left them behind. He so desperately wanted to go back to them, but he couldn't.

Thus was the life of a Division Agent.

And now, his friends were security leaks. If they told anyone that he was some sort of secret agent, then that would draw attention that Jaune _really_ didn't want, nor could afford to have. He had to deal with them, without hurting them if possible.

He opened his comms and cleared his throat. "Crossroads, this is E-113, over."

"Echo-113, this is Crossroads, what's your status, over?"

Jaune held his breath for a moment, before exhaling tiredly. "I'm compromised. I need backup to assist with seven possible security threats. Beacon Students, over."

"...*Sigh* Affirmative. An agent just arrived, and Sierra-117 has completed her mission. Re-routing her to your position. Sending agent Bravo-212 to your coordinates. Have ISAC send out a beacon, over."

"Roger that, out."

Jaune closed the channel and pressed the orange button on the device on his backpack's shoulder strapped. The device started to flash blue and orange rapidly, signalling that the beacon had been sent. He stood and went back outside. Hopefully he'd be able to intercept both of them before they arrived and killed his friends.

He thought back to the transmission and grimaced. S-117 was Jasmine, so he could probably reason with her.

Bravo-212, though...

Faye might not listen.

* * *

"COME OUT AND FIGHT YOU COWARD!"

Pyrrha winced as she heard Yang yell beside her, her semblance still active. The blonde bombshell was apparently still angry at Jaune for hurting Ruby, which was understandable. Though the champion worried for her partner's well-being should he actually fight Yang in her current state.

Granted, she too was angry at Jaune. Angry at him for leaving them. Angry at him for not even bothering to answer their questions.

She was angry at him for not coming back to them. To her.

Pyrrha pulled Milo back to her using her semblance, since she'd thrown it in an attempt to prevent Jaune from escaping. She'd hoped to snag his jacket, or even his backpack, but he suddenly disappeared before she could ever do such a thing.

What was that, anyway? She'd seen it before. The one time during her first _real_ spar against Jaune. He'd crossed the distance between them in an instant during that fight, like teleportation. It was the same case here. Was that his semblance? Was that another lie, too?

Pyrrha snuck a glance at Nora, who was limping over to Ren. Her wounds were still bleeding, but at least now she had her aura to help with it.

They were going back to Beacon anyway. At least, that's what Pyrrha was planning. She'd report this to Professor Ozpin, and maybe even get a Huntsman to help them out. Some professional help would really be of benefit to them. Plus, it was getting late, she realized as she looked up at the sky. The sun was peeki over a building and shining its light down the whole street, coloring it in a lovely shade of orange.

She turned Milo into its javelin form and used it as a make-shift cane, limping over to a nearby car to rest.

Jaune really had been a tough opponent. That was something Pyrrha thought she wouldn't say for a while. She wondered what Jaune was doing, why he was hiding himself. Like she thought, Jaune really was in trouble.

Or was he?

Pyrrha sat down and rested Milo against the car door and mulled over her thoughts. When they had been incapacitated, he had been talking into his headphones to someone. Crossroads, if she remembered correctly. He'd also said something about an 'E'? It must have something to do with radio communication. Jaune had referred to this Crossroads person as his higher-up, insinuating that whatever organization Jaune was part of had a chain of command.

And if it had a chain of command, then it must be a rather large organization. Or at least, large enough to warrant one in the first place. That being said, what organization could Jaune be apart of? His gear looked fairly militaristic, if a bit mismatched, but the type of rounds he fired at them were definitely mil-spec. He'd fired at Blake and Nora, and the rounds completely bypassed their auras and wounded the, directly. And the shock rounds were no joke either. They were darts, not bullets, hence why she was able to direct them away from her easier.

She would've expected just some shock dust rounds, but those darts still seemed to bypass their auras, unlike dust projectiles.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a dull thud. She looked up and around. It sounded like something had landed in the snow. Heavy, too.

With a small groan, she stood, using Milo as support. She looked to see that Yang had calmed down, albeit only slightly. The blonde must have heard the sound too, as she was also looking around for the source, as well as Blake, Weiss, and Ren, though the boy in green was busy tending to Nora's wounds. Speaking of, the Valkyrie was whimpering as Ren squeezed the bullets out of her, not unlike if one were to pop a pimple.

Pyrrha sent a pitying glance at her injured teammate before looking for the noise again. She looked down an alleyway and shook her head in dismissal. Nothing there except for a decrepit dumpster.

She turned to check another alleyway when she heard glass clank against the ground. She leaned back to looked down the alley again, and saw a lone glass bottle, rolling loudly against the pavement. It continued to roll towards her until it veered to the right, clinking against the brick wall of the building beside her. She bent down cautiously and picked it up.

The green glass was cold against her skin, and the contact sent a shiver down her spine. She looked around for a second before tossing it into the dumpster, the glass slamming loudly against the metal.

That was when it happened.

As Pyrrha turned to walk away, she heard a strangled cry. Her whipped to the side, and saw Ren writhing on the ground. Another set of pained shouts, and Pyrrha turned to see that Weiss, Blake, and Yang were now on the ground. She fell back into the alley as three figures emerged from a separate one.

"Is that all of them, Oracle?" A voice asked. Female, by the sound of it, and quite low, suggesting age.

"No. We're missing one."

' _Jaune?_ ' Pyrrha thought. There was no mistaking it, that was Jaune's voice.

"Think you can find them, Jäger?" Jaune asked. One of the two other figures scoffed.

"Psh. Puhlease. Already did." A different female answered in a higher tone of voice.

The words themselves caused Pyrrha to lock up, her whole body going ramrod straight. She held in her breath as she listened.

"Sorry, Pyrrha."

Said champion looked to her right where the dumpster was, only to see Jaune, still in disguise, aiming his gun at her.

"You're a security risk. Can't have you telling anyone else about me," he said apologetically. Pyrrha opened her mouth to reply when pain erupted all around her body. She screamed at the top of her lungs as she felt the electricity course through her veins.

* * *

Jaune watched as his ex-partner crumpled to the ground. Jasmine and Faye came around the corner as he let out a dejected sigh.

"You good?" Faye asked, jutting her chin to Pyrrha's twitching form.

Jaune nodded back. "Yeah. Shu, think you can lift 'em all?"

Faye shrugged before splaying her hands out before her. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind swooped past them and towards Pyrrha, before the red-haired girl seemed to lift off into the air. She stayed floating once she reached the five foot threshold.

Faye walked out of the alley, with Pyrrha and tow, and did the same with the other six. Jaune's friends lifted into the air one by one, either moaning in pain or unconcious. Faye levitated them over to her and organized them into two rows of three, with the last person below the second row and behind Faye.

Jaune switched out the mag in his pistol for his non-lethal Electrical Incapacitation Rounds. He then replaced the mag in his rifle with his Armor and Aura Piercing rounds. He stowed his rifle by magnetically locking it to the plate on the side of his backpack, and unholstered his pistol.

He kept it down, but was prepared to stun his friends if they came to their senses.

He looked back at Jasmine and saw that she was switching out her mags, too. To what, Jaune didn't know. Faye caught his attention when she called to him.

"Oracle, Jäger, are you ready for exfil?"

Jasmine nodded, but Jaune shook his head.

"Not enough aura for a group transport." He explained, grimacing as Faye turned her head to look at him.

"You... ugh... nevermind. Jäger, deal with that. My hands are a bit full at the moment." Faye ordered before turning away. She had her old Hawkmoon in her hands, the silvery surface of the revolver glinting in the afternoon sun.

Jasmine grunted before scooting over to him, taking his hands into hers. As he closed his eyes he felt her aura, and he let his own consume hers, and his soul flared around him. He heard Jasmine gasp a little, and he opened his eyes to see that she had become a little pale. He hastily severed their connection and reigned in his aura.

"S-Sorry."

Jasmine shook her head as she made to stand. However, Jaune had consumed a large portion of her aura, leaving her a bit weak, as evident by her failing to stand. Jaune quickly moved to catch her before she fell into the snow.

"Are you okay, Jas- Jäger?!" He asked worriedly. He cursed himself for the tongue slip, but quickly recovered. Jasmine nodded tiredly.

"Yeah... I'm fine... jeez, Oracle. Reign in your aura a bit, eh?"

Jaune scoffed at her teasing, but nodded nonetheless. He turned to Faye with a grunt as he was forced to move with Jasmine in his arms,

"I'm ready." He finally confirmed, much to the woman's relief.

Faye nodded and brought Jaune's friends over to him and Jasmine.

"Ready for exfil." Faye murmured.

"Transporting."

With those words, Jaune called upon his aura, surrounding him in wreathing flames of pure white. It then began to flake off, forming a small cube around them.

And in a bright flash of light, they were gone.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay guys, that's a wrap for this chapter. Again, apologies for any shitty errors that you may see, so leave anything you noticed in the reviews if you so wish. Any criticism, as long as it's constructive, is appreciated. I'll try to get around to fixing any errors in the previous chapters as soon as possible, but I might have to delay the update schedule for that, so I'll try and do that in a few chapters. Maybe two?**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading, and I'll see you all later.**

 **IU13, signing out!**

 **(Edit) Okay, so some of you guys PM'd me saying that I didn't upload the chapter, which I did. I'm not sure what happened, but if this happened to all of you, then it might be a problem on my end. Anyway, sorry for the delay nonetheless.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Explanations at the bottom, for those of you who are curious about my hiatus.** **Alright guys, next chapter, eh? Also, I don't really think I'll be able to reply to all of your reviews. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'll always read them, but I don't exactly know how to respond to all of them. If there are reviews with questions, then I'll definitely answer them, but as for general comments on the story, I'll just keep them in mind while I write. And trust me, I _will_ be referring to those points down the road.**

 **Anyway, the next chapter's here, glad you came back to read it.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Island of Vytal; Bestia Wilds: S.H.D. HQ Facility**

 **Jaune's room...**

Jaune pulled on a pair of grey combat trousers, and slipped on a collared black jacket. He tucked the jacket into his pants before securing his pants with a black tactical belt, but not before slipping a few pouches onto it, filled with various miscellaneous tools that would be useful for the mission ahead, as well as his mag pouches and his hard-case drop-down thigh holster for his pistol.

He stepped over his duffel bag that contained his guns and strode over to his wardrobe, pulling out his tac-vest. He inspected it briefly, noting that the first-aid kit, radio, multi-tool and turnakit were all in place, as well as his mags. With a nod of satisfaction, Jaune set the piece down into the duffel bag before walking over to his desk, where his pistol lay disassembled.

He'd been cleaning it before Jasmine had offered to grab lunch, and now it was time to put it all back together. He plopped down into his chair and got to work. Not even a minute later, the gun lay polished and freshly lubricated on a dirty mechanic's rag. Satisfied, Jaune racked the gun three times, lockingnit back on the third. He angled the gun downwards so as to let light shine into the chamber, and he noted that it was empty. To make sure of that, he inserted his pinky finger and felt around. Empty.

He hit the slide release, sending the slide forward, before rolling his chair over to his bed, where two gun cases lay. He reached over his rifle case and grasped he handle of his pistol case. Bringing it over to him, he spun the dials tl the correct numbers and clicked open the locks, swinging the lid up and open.

Inside was a foam cut-out, where Jaune placed the gun. To the side was a separate cutout, already occupied by a loaded magazine of hybrid fire-shock dust rounds. He closed the case and spun the dials again, locking it, before placing it on top of his rifle case. He briefly contemplated taking a look at his rifle, but decided against it. He'd already performed maintenance on it, before he'd started working on his pistol, actually.

He thought about his magazines, but shook his head. All of them had been loaded, so that was taken care of as well. With a sigh, Jaune stood from his chair and went over to his duffle bag, zipping it closed and tightening the straps around it to make it as small as possible. He grabbed his two gun cases and set them beside his duffle bag before flopping ont his bed. Using the remote that was on the shelf beside his bed, he turned the lights off and prepared to go to sleep. Some might think it odd that he slept in all of his gear, but for him, it just meant less hassle in the morning, and more time to do last-minute check lists.

He gave a quick glance at his watch, and saw that the time was 2000 hours, and he bawked a little at the numbers displayed on his watch. He'd lost track of the time as he was preparing for the mission. Hell, he'd spent almost the whole entire day making sure nothing was out of place, missing, or unmaintained.

He let out a tired sigh, feeling his eyelids grow heavier and heavier with each second. Just as the sandman was about whisk him away to the land of dreams, his watch buzzed. He let out an irritated grunt before dragging his wrist across the bed sheets next to his face. He stared at the notification that popped up on the holo-screen.

 **Crossroads: Mission Parameters**

He warred with himself over what to do. He couldn't possibly ignore such a thing, but he already knew his mission parameters. He'd already gone over them the day before, when he was first assigned to the task. But what if there were changes to the plan?

"Ugh. Dammit," he muttered before opening the node. He sat up in his bed as he read the file.

 **To: Agent Echo-113**

 **From: Crossroads**

 **Mission parameters have been altered. You are being deployed with team Rainbow.**

 **Target has recently been found to have ties with the White Masks, a highly lethal sub-division of the White Fang. Your orders are to aid in the capture of the target and assist in keeping him alive. Transportation has already been arranged and will arrive at 0900 hours tomorrow to pick you up. More details will be discussed upon your arrival at RAINBOW HQ. Once you arrive at the station, two Rainbow operatives will be present on-site to escort you to HQ.**

 **Any inquiries should be brought to attention before tomorrow.**

 **PS: Stay safe.**

Jaune rose an eyebrow at the info, and chuckled once he read the little note at the bottom. Crossroads was his mission handler, and he'd met her a couple of times. She was pretty sweet when she wasn't on the radio, directing the agents of Bravo Company, the unit Jaune was in.

What bothered him, however, was the sudden change of plans. He knew of the White Masks, and without a doubt knew about the White Fang. He also knew about RAINBOW team, the less subtle counter-terrorist unit of the I.G.B., right on par with the Division.

It was an exciting concept, to be sure. He'd heard of a lot of their exploits, especially their most recent operation in Harklett University, the Beacon Academy equivalent for civilians.

He noted the time that he was set to leave tomorrow and set an alarm for 5:30, plenty of time to do any final checks.

With that, he gave a final sigh of relief and once again flopped onto his back, this time immediately shutting his eyes. He was out like a light.

* * *

Jaune woke to the sound of... broken plates?

Wait, that wasn't right. He didn't have any plates in his quarters.

He opened his eyes, and saw a scene of utter chaos. Food littered the ground, tables and chairs lay upturned, broken, and scattered around the room. He saw himself, wearing a dark brown blazer with gold trimmings, white undershirt with a red tie, and black slacks with dress shoes. Odd, he didn't remember ever owning such clothes. After a moment of thought, Jaune realized something.

Why was he seeing himself from an outside perspective?!

He looked down and saw that he was in the same specter form as his daydream from earlier. He was ethereal. He sighed and watched the scene unfold.

The Jaune in the vision flew towards Ghost Jaune and slammed into the floor. He recovered fairly quickly and immediately ducked. Just in time, too, as an array of miscellaneous pieces of food sailed over his head. He looked up and lunged to the side as a girl with blonde hair and lilac eyes leaped into the air, donning a pair of...

' _Wait, what?_ ' Ghost Jaune thought to himself. He rubbed his spectral eyes just to make sure he wasn't hallucinating in his dream, and in fact, he wasn't. The girl had a pair of _turkeys_ on her hands, acting as... boxing gloves? That's what he could deduce anyway, given how the girl had just sent one hell of a haymaker into Visionary Jaune's face. Said girl wore a similar attire as his visionary self, with exception of a plaid skirt with black stockings in place of slacks.

Looking around, he saw similar scenes of combat, in which different kids his age fought with pieces of food as weapons.

He saw a pair of leeks being used as daggers by a raven-haired boy, a sword fish used as a rapier by a white-haired girl, and even a watermelon, speared onto a pole, with the whole assembly being used as a war hammer.

His eyes turned to see a different fight between a raven haired girl and a... girl with... red hair...

Ethereal Jaune walked over to their fight, feeling a sense of familiarity upon looking at the crimsonette. He immediately recognized where he might've seen her.

' _Was she the one at the top of Beacon Tower in my vision during lunch?_ '

She looked the part. And if she was the one who spoke on the tower, then it would connect a lot of dots for him, given how young she looked. She actually looked familiar, in the sense that he had seen her in the real world at some point.

Regardless, the red-haired girl seemed to be dominating her opponent, overwhelming her with the sheer volume of her attacks. He watched as she parried the other girl's dual breadsticks with her lone one, and landed a strike on the side of the other girl's face before spinning and kicking her in the stomach, sending her crashing into a nearby table and obliterating it.

He watched as the fight became more intense, and he was baffled by the collateral damage that these guys were causing. The shocking thing was that there weren't even that many teens actually _fighting_. By a quick head count, Jaune deduced that there were only about eight to nine people in the room, excluding himself.

...people who practically destroyed about 90% of the room's furniture and pretty much all of the food. If he had to guess, this was probably a cafeteria, given the sheer volume of food present.

He watched as the all of them split evenly into groups of four, each group occupying opposite sides of the caf.

Visionary Jaune had gone with the red-haired girl, the raven-haired boy, and the crazy ginger-haired girl with the watermelon hammer to the other side of the room, opposite of Ghost Jaune's position. Beside Ghost Jaune stood the blondie with the turkey gloves, the white-haired girl with the swordfish rapier, the ravenette who he had seen surfing across a table with a lunch tray, and a raven-haired girl who had used a sausage link as a chain whip.

Oum, that entire train of thought was a weird one.

It seemed like the fight had come to a climax, and that they were all about to settle it with one last showdown. He watched excitedly, eager to see the outcome of the fight. They all charged at each other with loud cries of determination, and...

* * *

Jaune twitched in his bed as his alarm woke him from his sleep. He lifted his left hand and slammed down on the watch with his right, turning the aggravating noise off. He sat up, rubbing his face to get the sleepiness out of his system.

As he was rubbing the crust out of his eyes, Jaune thought back to his dream.

' _This can't be normal. I've never met these guys in my life, so why am I imagining them in my dreams? And in such vivid detail?_ '

That was another thing, too. Just like his vision during lunch the previous day, this dream felt all too real, like he was reliving a memory, except it was a memory he either had no recollection of... or hadn't experienced yet.

' _This... this has to be my semblance. There's no way I can just make up these people in my mind like that, it's the only explanation. At least, the only explanation I can think of._ '

Jaune sighed as he got out of bed.

"I'll ask Irene about it when I get back." He murmured, stumbling into his bathroom to prepare for the day.

* * *

 **Vale; City of Vale: Safe House Lupa**

 **Present Day...**

Pyrrha didn't dare try to escape, not when she was being so heavily monitored.

She slouched against the wall of her 'cell', merely a concrete storage room with a wooden door that could easily be broken through by someone of her caliber. But doing so would be suicide. She'd been stripped of her weapons, taken to Oum knows where.

She looked out of the little window on the door, and she could just make out the shoulder of her cell's guard. He, like Jaune, had been wearing that stupid orange watch on his left wrist. She'd seen it on her way into the room.

Her friends, stripped of their weapons like she'd been, had all been separated and taken to different rooms, each with their own guard. She prayed with all of her hope that they were okay.

Suddenly, the door handle began to turn, and she watched as it opened to reveal Jaune, wearing his mask once again. She knew it was him because of the uniquely colored pistol at his side. He had brought in a folding chair, unfolded it, and placed it on the ground before sitting down on it backwards, leaning on the backrest with his elbows.

"Pyrrha... do you understand why you've been brought here?" He asked.

She remained silent, head bowed and lips set straight into a thin line.

Jaune sighed, scratching the back of his head. "You stuck your nose in the wrong place. And... for that, I'm sorry."

Pyrrha's head snapped back up, anger burning in her eyes.

"Sorry? That's all you have to say. Sorry. How about explaining what this all is? Or why you had to leave? Or why you never even told us? When are you going to tell me that?" She questioned.

Jaune was quiet for a moment, and Pyrrha almost thought he wouldn't answer her. Then he stood from his chair, walking over to her. She tensed up, thinking this was a trap.

He knelt down and rested his hand against her shoulder. Suddenly, she felt her aura being linked to. She made to push him away, but Jaune merely raised his hand to stop her.

Not even a second later, something felt... different. She looked down at herself, but there was nothing wrong with her body. Then she looked around, but saw nothing out of place.

Jaune then stood up and walked back to his chair, sitting in it just like he had before.

"I know you have no end of questions, but I promise you, I'll answer most of them, if I can. And don't worry about Gheist outside, he won't be bothering us."

"Why?"

He crossed his arms before resting his chin atop them. "Because you're my friend, and you deserve answers. Fair warning, however. There will be questions that I can't answer, or won't answer fully."

Pyrrha sighed, nodding reluctantly.

"So, what do you want to know?"

She thought carefully. Most likely, he wouldn't tell her the exact specifics of his 'job', but maybe he would give her a general idea? Maybe his semblance, too, but she highly doubted that.

"What is your semblance?" She asked.

Jaune chuckled. "I didn't think that was a question you'd ask, but it's understandable. I won't go into too much detail, but let's just say it has to do with time."

"As in, time manipulation?" She pushed, straining for more.

Jaune responded with a light shrug. "I don't know, like I said, not much detail."

"Well, what else could you do with time?"

"I don't know."

Pyrrha frowned. So he intended to play dumb with her? She internally groaned before moving on. "What do you do?" She asked.

"Figured that was one of them." Jaune remarked as soon as the words left her mouth. "Again, no specifics. I... guess you can say I'm a soldier. I'm being deployed to fight people, not Grimm."

"Good people or bad people?" She asked, a bit scared of the answer.

"Bad people, I promise. People like the rioters I told you about." He replied. His voice had been firm, laced with steel, as far as Pyrrha could tell. She hoped that meant he was telling the truth.

She nodded.

"Anything else?"

Pyrrha looked down at her knees, her mind rifling through the possible questions she could ask. There was so much she wanted to know that she knew he wouldn't say. What was he doing while they'd been searching for him? How long has he been this... this... secret agent? She wanted to that and more, but her mind was so jumbled she couldn't even begin to form a proper sentence. Finally, she settled on a question she'd asked herself since she arrived here.

"Why did you leave without telling us?"

Jaune paused, seemingly frozen in place. For a second, Pyrrha thought that his own semblance had affected him as well, before he sighed, lifting his hand up to take of the hat, headphones, and mask, as well as the sunglasses. Now his face was exposed for her to see. He looked the same as he did the last time she saw him, except that he, somehow, looked older. Like there was a weight that pressed down on him that Pyrrha had never seen before. His eyes bore guilt, which she was glad to see. That meant that he actually cared about it enough to feel bad.

"That was my fault. If I just told you that I wouldn't be back for a while, then maybe you wouldn't be in this position."

Pyrrha shook her head. "I probably still would. Because I'd still look for you."

Jaune chuckled, the familiar goofy smile spreading across his face.

"You would. I should've expected that," he admitted with a grin. "Anything else you want to know?"

Pyrrha shook her head.

With a sigh, Jaune let time flow normally, and let his smile drop from his face, setting it into a neutral expression. "Now we've gotta talk seriously. Like I said, you're here because you stuck your nose in the wrong place. And now, we're in this rut. There's only a couple options available to you. You could be sent to a federal prison for treason."

"Treason?! For what?!" She shrieked, causing Jaune to wince.

"I should've said this earlier, but I work for the government. That's why everything's coated in so much black."

"But treason?" She asked again, calmer this time.

"You attacked a federal agent of the I.G.B. In the eyes of the law, you just committed treason."

Pyrrha slumped against the wall. "What are the others?"

Jaune sighed and put his balaclava back on, as well as his other head gear. He slouched forward onto the chair, his head pointedly glancing away from her. "We could have one of our operatives rewrite the memories pertaining to this whole fiasco. You'd be able to go back to Beacon, completely healthy and fine."

Pyrrha rose an eyebrow in skepticism. The deal sounded too good. Too good to be true. To just let her free like that? No, there's no way. "What's the catch?"

Jaune shook his head. "There is none. You just... forget about all of this ever happening. And you go back happy with your friends."

" _Our_ friends, you mean. Right?" She corrected, a smile on her face. His face turned away from her slightly more. Then, it hit her. If she was going to forget everything about this whole event, then that'd mean she'd have to forget everything about the source of it all. She'd have to forget the person who started it in the first place.

"But if I do that... then I'd forget you... wouldn't I?"

Jaune tensed up, that much Pyrrha could see. She saw his hands clench into fists, before he hid them from view behind the chair's backrest. "It's the best option. You'd be able to live out the rest of your life. You can still pursue your huntress career."

"I won't. If it means forgetting our time together, then no."

Jaune lifted his head, and Pyrrha could imagine a frown underneath his mask. Or even a smile, happy that she'd said no. It was hard to tell.

"Pyrrha, you're being unreasonable."

"I'm not forgetting about you."

"You are throwing away your life! Can't you see that?!"

"There has to be another way!"

Jaune flinched, and Pyrrha noticed. "There is, isn't there?"

"No."

"Jaune, tell me." She pressed, moving forward to sit right in front of him.

"There isn't!"

A pang. A small, almost minuscule ache in her chest.

"You're lying."

Jaune shook his head, refusing to meet her gaze. "Pyrrha, there is no other option."

"Yes there is!"

"It's too dangerous."

"So, there is another way!"

Jaune flinched again, this time, standing up to leave. He was about to walk to the door when he felt a pair of arms encircle his abdomen. They held onto him tightly, preventing him from moving. He thought of using his semblance, but thought against it as he heard Pyrrha's ragged breaths. She was crying.

He could feel the wetness of her tears through the back of his jacket. He felt her body shake against his as she let her emotions show. He could feel his own resolve begin to waver.

"P-Please Jaune... I don't... I-I don't want to forget you..."

And there it went. He could practically see his will shatter like glass in front of him. With a reluctant sigh, he slowly turned in Pyrrha's arms, grasping her shoulders lightly and pushing her away, just enough so that he could talk to her without having their faces being inches away.

"I... ugh... There is... another way. Dammit, I'll regret this later." He mumbled the last part to himself, tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling. "I could... I could recommend you as a recruit for the organization. You'd be working with me... which in all honesty, I'd rather you not."

Pyrrha tilted her head in confusion. "What? Why?"

Jaune sighed, stepping away from her and scratching the back of his head. His gaze remained on the floor when he spoke to her next.

"Do you honestly believe you'd be ready? Being what I am is far more dangerous than you know. You think being a Huntress is bad? Think again." He looked back up, his sunglasses staring straight into Pyrrha's emerald irises. "And even if you are prepared to face that danger, are you prepared to kill another man? To take away their life, never to be seen by their loved ones ever again?"

She visibly recoiled at the notion.

"I knew it." Jaune grunted, before turning away. "You have two hours to make your choice. After the allotted amount of time has passed, I will return to head your answer. Consider your options carefully."

He reached for the door handle when he felt Pyrrha grab his hand.

"Wait!"

He turned to her, peering at her from over his shoulder. She stared at him with a stern gaze, mouth set into a frown.

"Promise me that you'll give the others that third choice. Give me your word." She demanded.

"That's not something I can..." he faltered when he saw that Pyrrha's gaze remained unwavering, her eyes still hardened and her expression unfazed. She was serious about this.

With a sigh, Jaune turned and knelt before her, taking her hand into his own, closing hers into a fist and placing it against his heart. He held his right hand up, but kept his head bowed. "I, Jaune Arc, swear to you, Pyrrha Nikos, that all options will be laid bare once the time I speak to our friends comes. This I vow on the Arc name, for you have my word."

He raised his head and stood. "There, it's done. I... I have to go now."

Pyrrha nodded, stepping away from him and back towards the wall. She sat down against it, but didn't slump. She had a chance. She had two hours to resolve herself. She could do it!

* * *

Jaune stepped out of the room feeling exhausted, more exhausted than he'd expected. He knew that these talks with his friends would drain a lot out of him, but even still. He sighed as he pulled up a holographic list on his watch, which had a full list of his friends' names. He tapped on Pyrrha's, check-marking it before reading the next name. Oh boy.

"Alright, Snow Angel. You're up." He muttered to himself, making his way through the safe house. The walk was brisk, but it was also tiring in itself. The safe house had received even more refugees by the looks of it, as there was now barely enough room to move around. He twisted his body to avoid bumping into a guy, only to step another guy's foot. He was quick to apologize, but didn't stay around long enough to hear the response.

It took Jaune only about two minutes to get to Weiss' cell. He nodded as he passed her room's guard, which was Cam. She nodded back to him, and tilted her head towards the door.

"You here for questioning?" She asked.

"Yeah, pretty much. How's she doing?"

Cam clicked her tongue in annoyance. "She's been demanding that I let her out. Though she died down around the two hour mark."

Jaune nodded as he patted her shoulder. "Thanks. I'll be going in now."

Cam chuckled. "Heh. Good luck dealing with that."

Jaune opened the door and stepped inside, greeted by the sight of the Schnee heiress sitting in the corner. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was quiet. He sighed before crouching down before her.

"Pst. Ice Queen. Wake up." He whispered. He poked her on the shoulder and leaned back as she swatted at him.

"I am awake, you dolt." She retorted, opening her eyes and sitting up, resting her hands in her lap.

Jaune backed away and sat cross-legged in front of her, at a respectable distance. He cleared his threat before he began.

"I'll just... get right down to the chase. You're here because you stuck your nose in the wrong place, and you are now suffering the consequences." He stated. Weiss sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"We're all stuck in this dilemma because of you, Arc. If you hadn't left, then maybe we wouldn't be dealing with this whole situation." She replied calmly, though a faint trace of annoyance could be heard in her voice as well.

"I... wish I had that option, Weiss. But I couldn't have stayed. I was called, and I'm bound to answer."

Weiss' eyes seemed conflicted, as if deciding what she wanted to say. "Then why get so attached in the first place?"

With a flinch, Jaune scratched the back of his head. "Do you want the truth or the lie?"

"Haven't you told us enough lies?"

"I... guess so." Jaune admitted with a sheepish chuckle. "I got attached to you guys because... you guys were really my first friends in a long while. Before you guys, I never really had anybody besides my family. Well, except for... nevermind."

"Except for?" Weiss inquired, but Jaune shook his head.

"Don't worry about it. It's nothing of your concern, for now. Do you have any more questions?"

"Who do you work for?" She asked.

"Heh. Direct, aren't you?" Jaune chuckled, leaning back on his hands. "Can't tell you exactly, Weiss. But I will say I'm federal."

"Federal as in government?" Weiss asked to clarify, an eyebrow raised.

"Yes. But that's all I can say. Anything else?"

"Why did you leave?"

Jaune sighed, scratching the side of his chin. "I already told you. I was called, and I had to answer."

"That's it?"

"Yes, that's it." He confirmed with a nod.

"Was it all a lie?"

The last one threw Jaune for a loop. He tilted his head in confusion. "What do you mean? Our friendship? Or rather, whatever relationship we had, anyway."

"I didn't hate you, Arc. But you were rather annoying. If you hadn't asked me out so many times, I would have maybe been a better friend to you."

Jaune chuckled lightly. "I guess that was a bit annoying, wasn't it? I'm sorry. I should have stopped."

"Well... you did. Two weeks before you left." Weiss replied, her gaze on her hands. She looked back up to him, this time with a bit of sadness. "Was that all a lie, too? All of those times you tried to ask me out? Was that just a part of your facade?"

Immediately, Jaune shook his head. "No. Originally, yes, they were. I wanted to push you away, given your family name and your connections. But over time, as I got to learn more about you, I realized we had quite a bit in common, and I thought that something could actually work out between us. Not to mention, you _were_ drop dead gorgeous."

"Not for family name? Or my wealth?" She asked, her face flushed.

"I'm... actually ashamed to say, but I didn't make the connection between you and the SDC until right before the Forever Fall trip towards the end of the first quarter." Jaune admitted, twiddling his thumbs together in embarrassment. Weiss could imagine a blush on his face if he didn't have the mask on.

At that, Weiss started to snicker, before she erupted into a full blown fit of giggles. Jaune slowly began to chuckle along with her, and soon they were both laughing at his expense. When they calmed down enough a few seconds later, Weiss continued.

"What clued you in?"

Jaune snorted. "I stepped on a pamphlet somebody had dropped in the hallway. It was called 'Dust for Dummies,' or something like that. Then I saw it was branded by the _Schnee Dust Company_ and... well... that's when I realized it."

"Wow."

"I know, right? I felt like such an idiot."

There was a moment of silence as the two calmed down from their laughing fit. Weiss suddenly remembered something.

"So, why are you here again?" She asked.

Jaune snapped his fingers, and Weiss could practically see the light bulb blinking over his head from the ridiculously hilarious pose he had unknowingly pulled.

"Right! Forgot. We have to discuss what you'll do from this point on."

Weiss tilted her head in confusion. "From this point on?"

Jaune nodded, and his tone of voice became serious. "Like I said before, we're in this mess, and there are only a couple ways to resolve it. There are tw-three options. Because you... well... attacked a federal agent, you could be sent to a federal detention center for treason."

Weiss gulped. "What's the other one?"

"We could... have one of our operators tamper with your memories, make you forget everything about the whole incident. You could get off scot free, go back to Beacon healthy and fine."

"That's not all there is to it, right?"

Jaune clicked his tongue. "Tch. You too?" He let out a sigh, rubbing his face. "You would forget everything about me. That's it. It isn't much of a downside, so this is probably the best option."

"You don't give yourself enough credit, Jaune. That's a horrible thing to say." Weiss scolded. Jaune merely scoffed at her.

"Weiss, can you honestly say that if you hadn't been dragged along on the search for me, you would miss me? If I just disappeared from Beacon and never returned, and nobody else gave a care in the world?" He asked.

He already knew the answer, naturally. He wasn't exactly someone Weiss would call a friend. Heck, he was practically a pest. He knew it, that's how he wanted it at first. Like she said, maybe they could have been better friends, but as it stood right now, there was no reason for her to associate with him, not when it risked her life whether she picked the first or third option.

But, that was why when he saw her hair bob as she nodded, he was gobsmacked in shock. He tried to form some sort of sentence to show his disbelief, but all that tumbled out was a clumsy, "Huh?"

Weiss felt herself smirk at the confusion in his voice. Knowing him, he'd probably expected her to say no, that she wouldn't miss him at all. Granted that, maybe a few weeks prior, she would have said no, but now? Knowing a little bit more about the Arc made her realize something.

"Yes, I would miss you Jaune. And so would everyone else. Plus, now that you've... told me a bit more of the truth, I'd like to restart. I guess... wipe the slate clean? I hope there's an option that allows for that."

Weiss watched his covered face for any hints of an expression. From the little outlines of his mouth, it seemed he was biting his lip. So there was?

"It... There... migh-no, there _is_ the third option. But it's far more dangerous than you can imagine."

Weiss scoffed at the thought. "Jaune, please, I'm training to be a Huntress. It's inevitable for me to to experience danger in my life."

Jaune shook his head. "Not like this. You'd experience danger, yes, but mostly against Grimm. In my line of work, you'd be... facing against people. And..." He paused to look at her face, to see her reaction. "...you'd be killing them."

She'd reacted like he thought she would. She looked like she'd just been struck by a hammer to her gut, her expression twitching, undecided on which emotion it should settle on. He could guess a few of the emotions that were running through her head. Confusion, denial, maybe even a bit of anger?

And he was right, not that he knew. Weiss wasn't exactly sure what to think about that. A storm of thoughts rushed around her brain, leaving her wordless and numb. How was she supposed to respond to that? She couldn't just agree, but she didn't really want to disagree either. She knew her friends, well, at least most of them would more than likely choose the third option just so that they could stay friends with Arc. His team would, without a doubt. And Ruby, being Jaune's first friend at Beacon and vise versa, would undoubtly do the same. Yang would probably choose the third option to keep an eye on Ruby.

And Blake...

...well, Blake didn't really have a reason to stay with Jaune. They never exactly talked, and even then it was only for school, if Weiss remembered correctly. But even still, that was half of her team that would be risking their lives on some kind of secret mission, and if Weiss chose the second option, it would be without her knowledge.

Jaune seemed to pick up on Weiss' struggle, and coughed once to gain her attention.

"I'm not expecting an answer right away." He assured her, leaning forward and patting her shoulder. "I'll be back in about two hours. That should give you plenty of time to think it over."

His boots scuffed against the concrete floor as he uncrossed his legs and stood, and Weiss watched as he left the room. When the door closed shut with a resounding thud, and she heard the bolt of the lock slip back in place, she let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

She let out a small laugh. How things have changed, to the point where Jaune Arc, the alleged Vomit Boy of Beacon, had left her feeling breathless. But regarding her options, it was true that the second option seemed to be the best one out of all of them, being able to live peacefully with the trade-off off forgetting one person. Though, didn't't the third option align with her goals, too? To follow in the footsteps of her sister and carve out her own name as Weiss Schnee instead of _just_ a Schnee? And if it meant hiding her identity, then perhaps she could fade from her father's clutches as well.

Now that she thought about it, the decision just became a little bit harder...

Jaune's hand slid from the door as he stepped away, feeling a little less exhausted than his talk with Pyrrha, but still a little worn out. And next up was... the troublemaker...

"Alright, Blake. What'll it be?" He murmured as he stepped into the crowded hallway of Safe House Lupa.

* * *

 **A/N: Hey guys... wow... it's been a while.**

 **First off, I would like to say that I'm very sorry, and that I probably deserve all of the criticism some of you, or a lot of you, will undoubtedly feel. To sum up why I disappeared off of the grid for as long as I did, I hit a road block. This has never really happened to me before, but I think this is what writers would call "Writer's Block". Basically, I have no idea how I want to move through with the following chapters.**

 **Don't get me wrong, I have everything else laid out and planned. I have my points plotted and straightened out (probably), but the problem is I have no idea how to execute them. Well, let me rephrase that. I'm screwing myself over with how to execute them. I have a lot of ideas in mind, and some sound really good to me at first, but when I try to put them on paper, they just look horribly wrong. That's why this chapter took so long for me to write.**

 **I had to take into account the relationships between the characters, and figured out which questions would suit them. How weird would it be for Weiss to ask how long he's been a Division agent when their relationship is equivalent to a restrained dog and ball that's five feet away? Pointless and weird comparisons aside, I've screwed myself over by having so many ideas on how a scene should go, and it might take a while for me to straighten everything out. I promise you, I'm really trying here, but it's so utterly frustrating to hate what I've put down on paper, I feel like I want to break something sometimes.**

 ***sigh* Anyway, things are getting a little complicated here. I'm actually going to be smoothening out some things in the previous chapters as well, and I'm definitely going back to fix chapter 6 (or was it 7?), as well as some other problems you guys pointed out to me. And I'm also going to fix some mistakes that I know will screw me over later on in the story. So I'm basically doing a slight overhaul, if that makes any sense. I know how weird my brain is.**

 **Anyways, guys. Thanks for reading, I'm glad you guys stuck around to see this chapter, and I hope you all have a wonderful day/night.**

 **IU13, signing out.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Hey, I'm back! How've you been? So, first off, thank you guys for the support you all gave me. I know waiting for chapters sucks, but I'm really glad you guys understand the circumstances. Now, the story.** **So like I said, I'm still working out some kinks in the story, but I am going to be writing the newer chapters as well, because I'm really trying to keep to my schedule here. (Yep, still in denial) Expect the fixes to come out a bit after this chapter. But... whoo boy... anyway, thank you guys for the overwhelming support you all showed last chapter, I couldn't be happier to know you guys were so understanding. I was a bit scared that there'd be a lot more negative comments, but I'm glad to see that's not the case. A lot of you guys pointed out that Rainbow team sounded a lot like Rainbow team from Rainbow Six. Well, yeah. 'Cuz guess what game has become IU13's baby for the past 3 months? Jeez, where do I even begin? I mean, I'm fundamentally a noob even now, despite the fact that I'm ranked, (Gold IV baby!), but I still love this game to pieces. So... yes, I am including Rainbow Six Siege into the story, but only a little bit. Hell, maybe even some other Tom Clancy games, like Ghost Recon or something. I dunno, it'll be up to you guys to decide if you want me to do that, but this fic will mostly center around The Division. Anyway, new chapter, let's not delay any further, eh?**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Mistral; City of Janus, Janus Aero Station: 22:00hr**

Jaune hefted his duffle bag over his shoulders as the bullhead desecended to the ground. He yawned into his hand, the jet lag from the long flight washing over his body like a tsunami. How badly he wished he could just curl up in a bed and sleep. Hell, he could drop on the floor right now and be whisked away into his dreams, not like he would care any less. But, sadly, he had protocols to follow.

The cargo door opened before him, and he stepped out into the cool night. He let out a huff as the air chilled his body. As he went down the cargo ramp, he saw a black SUV pull up a little ways ahead, its head lights blinding his eyes for a second. He made it to ground level and walked towards the vehicle, watching with interest as two people stepped out. A slender red headed woman with a ball cap wearing all black, and a tall oriental man with black hair and attire that was much the same color.

Once he reached them, he set his bag down and snapped off a salute.

"Jaune Arc, callsign Oracle, designation Echo-113, reporting for duty." He stated, his words slurring the tiniest bit due to his jet lag. The woman chuckled.

"Tired huh? Always did hate those long ass flights. Get in. We'll get you comfy as soon as we get to base." She said, beckoning him over to the truck. Jaune hastily retrieved his bag from the ground and tossed it into the vehicle before following suit, sinking into the soft, warm seat.

He nearly fell asleep when the slamming of two doors jolted him awake. He looked to see that the man and the woman had joined him in the car, while a third person, a muscled man of colored complexion, sat in the driver's seat. The woman sat shotgun while the oriental man sat beside Jaune.

"Jesus, I thought Jordan was kidding when he said we were getting a kid, but lookin' at you now... holy shit." The driver said as he looked at Jaune through the rear view mirror.

"How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?" The other man, the one with black hair, asked.

"I'm sixteen sir." Jaune replied, chuckling a bit at the surprised expressions plastered on their faces.

"Truly a kid..." the man murmured, leaning back into his seat.

"Alright, introductions!" The woman exclaimed with a smile, turning in her seat to face Jaune.

"I'm Eliza Cohen, callsign Ash. The idiot next to me is Miles Campbell, callsign Castle." Castle took one hand off the wheel and hit Ash in the shoulder with the back of his fist, to which Ash responded in kind. She then gestured to the man Jaune was sitting next to. "And mister anime M.C. next to you is Masaru Enatsu, callsign Echo."

Echo sighed before flaring his aura and sending a strong of burst of compressed air that sent Ash into the dashboard. "You know how much I resent that statement Cohen." He chided lightly.

Ash flipped him off before returning to her seat. "You're just being a... ah... what do your people call it again? Oh right, a tsunde-mph!" Before Ash could finish her sentence, she found a magazine in her face out of the blue.

Echo looked over and saw that her glove compartment had been opened, and raised an eyebrow. He turned to Jaune and saw him smirk, giving the man a thumbs up. Echo smiled and burst into laughter, offering Jaune a fist.

Jaune happily bumped it.

 **Mistral; City of Janus, Rainbow HQ: 23:00hr**

When Castle pulled up to Hereford Base, Jaune was nearly asleep, with the only thing keeping him awake being the Beast energy drinks he'd packed in his duffle bag. Of course, he'd gotten a few looks from Echo and Ash, as well as some backwards glances from Castle, as he tucked away his 9th empty can.

To be fair, his duffle bag was fairly large, large enough to carry the 20 cans in the first place.

As he stepped out of the truck, he finished off his 10th can before putting it back into his bag. He retrieved said bag from the back of the vehicle and followed the three Rainbow operators as they led him into Hereford Base, the place he'd be staying for the next couple of weeks while on mission.

As they led him on a tour throughout the base, he mentally noted places of interest, mainly the recreational room, the dining room which was connected to the kitchen, the infirmary, and the tactician's room, which was for debriefs.

The three operators led him into the tactician's room where a large holo-projector hung from the ceiling. They left him alone and closed the door. Shortly after, the projector spun up, and a woman, dark in complexion with black hair and authoritative black eyes, appeared on hologram. She was looking at a Manila folder, before she set it down and folded her hands on the table. Jaune stood stiffly at attention.

"Agent Echo-113, callsign Oracle, name: Jaune Arc. 16 years old and hailing from Vacuo, coming from a family of 10 including yourself, a mother and father as well as 7 sisters." The woman listed off, while Jaune sat quietly as she assessed him.

"At ease, Agent." She said after a minute of silence, and Jaune relaxed his posture. "You're a lot younger than I was expecting."

Jaune chuckled. "I've gotten that a lot."

"Are you sure you're up to the task?"

Jaune nodded resolutely, expression firm. "I am. I will do everything in my power to ensure the mission is completed, and that my allies remain unharmed."

The woman nodded, a small smile forming upon her lips. "That's good to hear. I'm sorry, I've forgotten to introduce myself. I am the deputy director of the Rainbow Counter-terrorism Unit. You may call me Six."

"Yes ma'am."

Six then reached over to a phone over to her left, pressing a button.

"Ash, please direct Oracle to his quarters." Jaune heard the redhead's voice mumble from the device before Six turned back to him. "Oracle, you will be introduced to the rest of Rainbow Team tomorrow, after you've had your rest. I'm sure the ride here was a long one."

The blonde Arc laughed a little as the door opened. "Ma'am, you have no idea how badly I want to sleep on this floor, right now."

* * *

 **Vale; City of Vale, Safe House Lupa: 16:30hr**

Jaune cursed silently in his head as he nearly tripped over something he couldn't see. The crowd was too thick and moving too fast for him to see what had nearly caught his leg. A small group of children weaved through the crowd in front of him, bumping into him and, consequently, into another person.

"Sorry," he said to the person, who waved it off. It was another agent by the looks of it, one that he hadn't seen before, however. The agent's musculature suggested he was male, but his orange shell jacket did well to hide most of the agent's frame. He wore a pair of faded blue denim jeans, and some regular-looking high-tops for footwear. His head was concealed behind a black ballistic mask that only had openings for the eyes, resting over a black balaclava.

"It's fine," the agent replied dismissively, his deep voice confirming his gender. "I wasn't really paying attention myself, and this crowd isn't doing much to help with traversing the place."

Jaune chuckled in agreement. "Yeah, it's a bit tight in here. But that's the price we pay for saving these peoples' lives. Pretty insignificant cost, huh?"

The other agent nodded. Jaune took the chance to ask about the other agent's station, as he was an unfamiliar sight.

"Are you from the Valean branch?"

The other agent shook his head. "No, mate. I'm part of the Mistralian branch. West Mistralian, to be specific. The East Mistralian branch is busy dealing with their own problems at the moment, but it's not as serious as it is here."

Jaune nodded and held out a hand. "I'm from the Valean branch. Callsign Oracle, designation Echo-113."

The other agent took up Jaune's hand in a firm handshake, his grip much stronger than the blonde Arc's. "Callsign Paladin, Pal for short. Designation Tango-391."

"Good meeting you Paladin." Jaune said. He looked down at his watch briefly and grimaced. "Sorry to cut this meeting short, but I've gotta head to the cells to check up on some prisoners."

Paladin caught his shoulder before he could turn away fast enough. "Wait, can you point me to the cafeteria here? I just got in and I'm starving."

Jaune gladly obliged and pointed him in the direction of the food before diving back into the sea of people once again. He lightly pushed his way through the crowds, being careful so as to not trip over another person. After about ten minutes of shuffling, wading, and stepping over the feet of others, he arrived at Blake's room. He gave a nod to the guard, whom he recognized from Basic Training.

"Hey Reach. How was she?" He asked.

Reach was a tall man, dressed head to toe in Valean Marine's gear with the word 'REACH' emblazoned in yellow on a patch on his left breast. He shrugged in response. "Completely silent as far as I could tell," he replied gruffly, his voice deep and gravely. "She's just been sitting at the back wall. No movement whatsoever."

"Hm. I'm going in, good seeing you again."

"You too man."

Jaune turned the heavy metal handle of the door to the closet, and immediately his gaze locked onto Blake's frame. Reach was right, and if Jaune didn't know any better, he would have thought she was asleep. But the small, almost inaudible murmuring that came from the cat faunus told Jaune that she was indeed awake.

"Blake?" he called quietly. He stepped forward, and then it happened.

His semblance just managed to activate before Blake's aura-infused hand could connect with his crotch. He breathed a sigh of relief as he gladly stepped away from her. From the new angle, he could now see what she had done. Blake still sat against the wall. That is, a clone of her did. The real Blake was currently frozen in time, poised to strike someone right in the jewels. A trail of dark violet aura trailed from behind the real Blake, a side effect of such fast movement.

He moved over to her and redirected her limbs, careful so as to not hurt her, and posed her so that she was instead punching the ground. He grabbed her hand and drained the aura covering it, absorbing it into his own reserves.

With the blink of an eye, his semblance deactivated, and a cry of pain erupted from Blake's mouth as her unprotected hand crashed violently against the concrete floor.

* * *

Blake's head snapped upwards, her eyes darting to and fro with bewilderment. She then looked behind her and found the man that she had tried to subdue standing there, his arms crossed and his head tilted to the side. It was only after looking at his gun did she realize that the person standing in front of her was the blonde noodle, Jaune Arc.

She made to charge at him, but was stopped by a literal wall of white aura. She fell onto her butt and looked at Jaune in amazement. He stood with his hand raised towards her, undoubtedly responsible for the construct before them. The wall dropped a few seconds later, and he lowered his hand.

"You're really pushing your limits today, Belladonna." Jaune chided, a bit of mirth in his tone. Blake recognized the playfulness in his voice and narrowed her eyes, a small smirk coming across her lips.

"Why's that?"

Jaune huffed, crossing his arms once more. "You've caused me a lot of trouble today. No doubt because of those Faunus senses of yours."

Blake's eyes widened like saucers, shocked that he even knew. They narrowed dangerously into slits, almost threatening.

"You knew," she hissed, dropping into a fighting stance. Another wall of aura sprang up from the ground and she heard Jaune sigh, his head shaking from side to side.

"I just came to talk, Blake. Not fight. And depending on our conversation, you might just get out of here scot free."

Blake scoffed, planting her hands on her hips with her eyes glaring at him unbelievably.

"Like I'd believe that," she retorted.

The blonde Arc gestured to the floor beneath her with a simple wave of the hand, dispelling the wall of aura at the same time.

"Sit down and listen, then you'll find the truth out for yourself."

She hesitated for a moment, unsure whether or not to trust the man in front of her. This wasn't the Jaune she knew of. She was certain this was a different Jaune.

Almost certain.

Despite that, she sat down cross-legged, but was prepared to act on a moment's notice, already reaching for her aura should she need it. Jaune moved towards her slowly, before crouching down and kneeling in seiza. She rose an eyebrow at him, eyes scanning him up and down, as his hands rose to his head before they pulled off the head gear that concealed his face.

Blonde hair popped out of the black balaclava, messy as ever but damp with a bit of sweat, and war, sapphire eyes revealed themselves as Jaune opened his eyes. He smiled a little as he set the articles onto the floor beside him before resting his hands on his lap.

"Those things tend to get a bit stuffy, don't they?" He commented. Blake's eyes narrowed at the attempt at small talk.

"Just get to the point, Jaune."

The Arc winced at the coldness in her voice, but quickly regained his composure with a quick cough.

"I'm sure you're aware as to why you're currently in this position, correct?" He asked, waving his hand towards the walls that surrounded them.

"Not exactly. I have an idea, but I'd need to confirm." Blake replied.

"Well, in short, you all opened Pandora's box, and now we're stuck in this rut. There's only so much we can do from here on out."

Blake narrowed her eyes at him. "We're the problem? What about you? You left so suddenly without so much as a warning! Couldn't you have at least told us where you were going? Or hell, maybe even lie?"

Jaune shook his head. "I would have been more careful if the situation hadn't been so urgent. A colleague of mine was in need of immediate assistance and, being the closest, I was called in to respond."

"Why couldn't you have just revealed yourself from the start?" Blake questioned.

A sigh escaped from Jaune's lips as he shook his head. "I wish I could've, but it's against regulations for me to do so. It would've put you all in far more danger than you think if I just told you and let you run free. It's for the best that you stay in custody for the time being."

"Regulations? Are you part of the government?"

"Yes, but that's all I'm allowed to tell you." Jaune replied curtly.

"And how am I supposed to just trust what you say? For all I know you could be lying to me."

"I'm not asking you to trust me. I'm simply being fair to all of you by answering your questions like I did and will do with all of your friends."

"My friends? Aren't they yours too?"

Blake noticed Jaune tense up, his hands clenching into tight fists, so much so that his knuckles turned white. He let out a low, hollow chuckle.

"Can you honestly say that they're my friends? You, of all people?" He asked, gesturing up and down towards her. "You know how it feels to be guilty of lying to the people around you, especially when it could harm them in the future."

Blake's eyes widened as realization dawned on her, and she felt herself tense. He knew about the White Fang. He knew that she was once a part of them. How? How did he know? Jaune held up a hand and shook his head.

"You don't need to worry. I've known from the start. And I also know that you're actively going against them, which I personally applaud you for. I've kept tabs on you for months in case you ever went rogue, but I know that's not going to be the case."

Blake scoffed as she rolled her eyes, amused by the words coming out of Jaune's mouth. "And you trust your gut enough to think that?"

Jaune merely shrugged, before he grinned at her in his trademark goofball manner. "Who said it was my gut? Call it... a hunch."

Then she noticed it. Her eyes snapped to his as she noticed the change in color. It was so sudden, in the blink of an eye, both literally and figuratively. When she looked into Jaune's eyes, she no longer saw glowing sapphire blue. Instead her gaze was met with a smoldering orange, bright and vibrant like the embers of a fire, with the image of a clock face painted over his sclera.

She gasped as, in a single instant, without her even noticing, she found his hand touching her shoulder, and the world around her taking on a dull monotone color.

Jaune then sat back, slaying his legs out and leaning on his elbows lazily.

"No need to worry about anybody outside. We're in a completely private spot now," Jaune's voice cut through the eerie silence like a knife through butter, his voice echoing just the tiniest bit.

"What... what did you do?" Blake questioned, backing away from him a little.

He simply chuckled and pointed at his eyes. "I used my semblance."

Blake scoffed as she shook her head. "Of course. Even that was a lie, huh? Time manipulation, I'm guessing?"

"Nope, nice try though."

Her eyes narrowed at the casual dismissal. "I don't really buy that."

Jaune shrugged with a small smirk. "You'd never know, and I can't tell you flat out."

"So time manipulation, then?" Blake stated flatly, giving him a deadpan.

"Only time will tell."

Blake groaned as she covered her face with her hands, internally cringing at the poor humor she just witnessed. "I already get enough of this from Yang, I don't need it from you, too. Do all blondes have a penchant for bad jokes?"

Jaune's laughter rang throughout the room, and soon, she joined him with a few chuckles. Jaune wiped away a tear from his eye before looking back at her seriously, the sudden change startling Blake a bit.

"We... Do you have any questions? We should probably get back to business."

Blake shook her head, her mind coming up blank.

"Okay." Jaune slipped on his head gear again, and color seeped back into the world. It was actually really beautiful, like a picture coming to life in front of her eyes.

"Like the others, you only have three... three options. Federal prison is the first one, locked up for treason for attacking a federal agent."

Blake squirmed uncomfortably at that.

"There's also the option where we have one of our operatives alter your memories, removing all of the memories associated with this ordeal."

* * *

Jaune felt a little hope arise when he saw the elation on Blake's face.

"I take it you want to choose the second option?" Jaune pressed. The cat Faunus nodded slowly, but then held out her hand.

' _Shit_.'

"What about the third option?"

Jaune sighed in frustration. "Do you guys all coordinate this shit beforehand?" He muttered. He groaned into his hand for good measure before turning to Blake with an irate expression, not that she could see it.

"Third option. Listen closely 'cuz I'm not repeating any of it. I recommend you as a recruit for the organization, and you might become one of our agents. Yes, we're good guys, and yes, we're government."

Blake reeled back in surprise at the mess of words that spilled out of Jaune's mouth, given how fast he said them, speeds that rivaled one of Ruby's infamous rants. Being recruited into an organization that she had no idea about? Nevermind what they stood for? Granted that yes, Jaune said they were government, but she couldn't just trust him like that, especially given recent events.

"I... I don-"

 ***BOOM***

Jaune sprung up from the ground, throwing the wooden door open with such force that it cracked. He rushed outside, pistol in hand and readied. He looked to his left and saw people running towards him. Turning to the right he saw a few fellow Division agents leading the civilians into the cafeteria. Reach and the agent that Jaune had met earlier, Paladin, separated from the group and began running towards him.

"Oracle!" Reach called, Jaune's rifle in hand. Jaune grabbed the AUG and nodded in appreciation, priming the bolt and aiming down the hallway.

"Jaune! What's happening?" Blake yelled from her room, and Jaune patted Paladin's shoulder and gestured to the cell.

"Get her to the cafeteria. Reach, what's the status of the other prisoners?"

The tan-colored man tapped a button his watch and a holo-screen popped up, showing the lay out of the building with several dots scattered throughout. He tapped on one of the dots and a camera feed prepped up on the hologram. It was a live feed of one the cells, this one containing Yang. She was huddled in the corner, beside the door, completely still. Reach switched the camera feed and showed Ruby, in the same position as Yang, huddled in the corner close to the door. Flicking through the cams showed that the others were in the same position.

Jaune grunted. The other cells were scattered throughout the building, and they needed to be secured. He turned to the Reach and Paladin, the latter of which held Blake by her shoulders, and pointed down the hall.

"I'm going to secure them. Fall back and make sure that the civilians are safe. Where are Jager and Shu?" He asked, his gun still aimed down the hallway.

"They're up ahead with a few other agents, mainly the ones guarding the prisoners. I know Gheist and Cam are with them, as well as Springer and Snatcher. I dunno about the others."

Jaune nodded. "Ping their location."

Reach tapped the holo-screen a few more times before a blip appeared on the mini-map on Jaune's HUD. He looked to his ammo counter and grimaced. He'd forgotten to restock, and only had about two mags worth of ammunition for his AUG and his pistol.

' _T_ _here's no time to look around for the ammo caches... but I might have to nick a gun or two off of a few guys. Hopefully their gear is at least semi-competent._ '

Jaune rushed towards the agents' location as fast as he could, making sure to keep a steady pace while also reducing the amount of noise he gave off.

He turned the corner to find a group of thugs loitering around the main room, their guns down and their bodies seemingly relaxed. Some of them were even lounging around, chowing down on the food they stole from the ration stands.

"Yo, this fuckin' beef tastes like shit, man!" One of them yelled, throwing the MRE packet onto the floor.

"Well what do you expect dickhead? It's the fuckin' military, all their shit's bland as hell." Another replied.

"Both of you, shut the fuck up. Remember, boss is gonna be swingin' by to claim the joint and merc the poor mothafucka's that are here."

Jaune mentally noted that, storing the information away for possibly near-future reference.

"Ey, yo! Where the fuck is J.D? That mothafucka told me he was gon' gimme that fuckin' bitch's number for tonight?"

"Who the fuck gives a shit?"

"Ey, screw you man! You try to get some pussy during all this bullsh-grk!"

Jaune was fed up with the small talk and immediately popped the thug in the head with his AUG. The others, having heard th gunshot, all stood at attention and readied their weapons, not like it mattered. Jaune stopped time and ran straight past all of them, making sure that he was out of their line of sight, before he deactivated his semblance. Hiding behind a ration stand, he listened as they all opened fire on his previous position. All of them were using full auto.

Good.

Using the gunfire as covering noise, he eliminated two thugs on the stairs, before swiveling his sights over to a trio of guys standing next to a fold out table. He slipped a grenade off of his belt and pulled the pin, lobbing it over to them. In the time it took for the fuse to blow, Jaune settled the sights of his rifle on the apparent leader's head, a hulk of a man who was sitting in the middle of the room on a recliner. He was still sitting, oddly enough, but his gold-plated gun was still trained on the doorway where Jaune had previously been hiding. Jaune fired, and the man's brain matter splattered across the floor.

The rest of the thugs seemed to notice that their leader was dead and stopped firing, looking around for the shooter when Jaune's grenade detonated, the explosion instantly killing the trio it had landed by and the shrapnel killing about four others that were unlucky enough to be nearby in a bloody mess of gore and limbs.

Jaune did a quick scan of the room and noted that there were only six more thugs left to kill. With a nod he activated his semblance and stopped time again, before running over to the stairs and going up to the second floor. Two guys were up there using the stone pillars that supported the ceiling as cover, and Jaune immediately went up to the both of them and slashed their throats with his karambit.

He let time flow normally and peeked from his newfound vantage point behind a metal coffee table, ignoring the sounds of the two thugs quietly choking on their own lifeblood not two meters away from him. He spotted the four remaining thugs all grouped up behind a hastily constructed piece of cover comprising of a few cots and some of the tables used for ration stands.

With a savage smirk, Jaune pulled a second grenade off of his belt, pulled its pin, and lobbed it over to them after waiting for two seconds. The device landed right next to all of them, and exploded before they even got a chance to scream, blood and body parts splattering agains the walls and any unfortunate piece of furniture.

With his high vantage point, he made sure that there were no more hostile before coming out from behind cover. His eyes flicked to the mini-map on his HUD and he kicked his gears into action, vaulting over the balcony railing and landing on the floor of the main room. He hustled down a hallway that was on the opposite end of the room from the hallway he had come from.

There was no resistance, at least for him, but the evidence of there being one was present in copious amounts. Blood smattered against the walls, the corpses of street gangsters all lying in the hallways in their own pools of blood, pain and fear etched forever in their faces. Jaune ignored all of it, the barrel of his gun going this way and that as he steadily made his way through the hall.

He was about halfway when he felt a hand grab his leg. He pointed the barrel of his gun down at the offending person but halted when he saw who it was. Ruby Rose.

She had grabbed his leg from the crevice of a door, and looked up at him fearfully, her silver eyes glistening like miniature moons.

"J-Jaune? Is that you?" She asked, her voice quivering.

He nodded, and knelt down to her level. She had been crying, if the tear streaks that trailed down her cheeks were anything to go by.

"Are you okay?" Jaune asked, checking her over for any injuries. She was fine, no cuts, bruises, or scrapes that he could see. Ruby nodded, but when she looked at the bodies behind him, tears welled up in her eyes again.

"J-Jaune... a-all of this b-blood... Th-They killed them so f-fast. They... they b-begged for their lives...!"

Of course, Jaune knew who had killed who. He sighed as he pulled Ruby into a hug with his off-hand, making sure his gun was still aiming down the hall. "It's okay, Rubes. I'm gonna get you someplace safe, okay? First, we need to find the others."

Ruby nodded slowly and stood, and Jaune rose with her.

"Stay behind me," he ordered her, and reached up to his comms. "To all agents, this is Echo-113. I am securing the prisoners that were brought in earlier today. I am currently on approach to Sierra-117 and Bravo-212's location from the eastern wing of the building, over."

It didn't take long for someone to respond, that someone being Jasmine. "Echo-113, this is Sierra-117. We have already secured all prisoners minus two, do you know their status, over?"

"Blake Belladonna is already secure in the cafeteria, Ruby Rose is currently with me. Who else is with you, over?"

"Gheist, Cam, Snatcher, Springer, Shu, Boomer, and X-Ray are all with me. I've got Gheist, Cam, Boomer, and Snatcher watching the prisoners while me, Springer, Shu, and X-Ray are trying to clear out hostiles in the northern wing making our way to the main room, over." Jasmine replied, the sound of gunfire and yelling coming through the link.

"Roger that, Jager." Jaune then remembered the conversation he had heard from the thugs in the main room. "Be advised, enemy reinforcements might be coming from the main room, expect heavy resistance and one enemy commander. I'll bring Ruby Rose to the other prisoners then I'll rendezvous with you, over."

"Roger that, Oracle. How copy, defense team?"

A new person answered, a voice that Jaune identified as Cam's.

"This is Foxtrot-409, we read you 5 by 5. The others know the plan. We'll be expecting you Oracle, out."

He looked back to Ruby, who had shut her eyes trying not to look at the gore surrounding her. He tapped her shoulder.

"C'mon Ruby. I need you to follow me. Do not stray away from me, stay low, and keep quiet."

She nodded, and they were on their way.

Their boots crunched against broken glass shards and various pieces of debris as they traversed through the battle-torn halls. Ruby watched in a bit of awe as Jaune smoothly checked each and every hallway and doorway they passed, the barrel of his rifle never wavering and every movement confident and calculated. It was so unlike the Jaune that she knew, that the difference was almost enough to make her dizzy.

She knew him to be bumbling and often times a clutz. But looking at him now... well... he wasn't exactly what you'd call a bumbling idiot.

Eventually, after about ten minutes of meticulous corner-checking and pie-cutting* they reached the defense team, located at the end of a long hallway in the northern wing. Cam beckoned the pair over as they approached, waving off the other three agents' guns.

Boomer was a mountain of a man, towering over Jaune by a few heads. He wore a humble outfit consisting of an olive green muscle tee and dark jeans, with black heavy Individual Body Armor covering his body. As standard for Division agents, he wore a balaclava colored in black, and a green ball cap. His cerulean irises were the only thing that could be seen, though you could see the Tactical Lens that rested over his eyes.

Snatcher, a slim, agile woman, wore a woodland hunters jacket and a pair of khaki-colored cargo pants. Over her jacket she wore an OD green plate carrier with several magazines for her AR57. She wore a black balaclava and a black ballcap, but had her hood pulled up, which looked a bit redundant with her sunglasses.

Gheist was a more modest man, about average height with a lean frame. He wore a white parka and navy blue combat trousers with black knee pads. Over it he wore a simple chest rig that carried the magazines for his .50 BMG Anti-Material Rifle. He wore a black fast helmet on top of a pair of ballistic eyeshields not unlike Jaune's. He wore a black balaclava as well.

"Glad you could make it, Oracle." Cam greeted, shaking Jaune's hand. "Boomer, put her with the others. Snatcher, get Oracle some ammunition."

Boomer made to grab Ruby, but Jaune held his hand in front of him.

"Treat her carefully. She's younger than the rest and..." Jaune took a moment to glance at her, "she's been mentally traumatized. She's not in a good state of mind right now."

Boomer glanced at Ruby as well, nodding as soon as he saw her shaking frame and widened eyes, an almost manic look in her silver irises.

He tapped the young girl's shoulder and she jumped a little, looking at him fearfully.

"I'm going to need you to follow me. I'm bringing you to the rest of your friends." Boomer told her in a soft voice. She seemed to calm down a little as she nodded, letting the large man lead her to a door at the end of the hall.

A mane of blonde hair popped out of the doorway, and Jaune smiled a little as he saw Yang rush towards her sister, wrapping her in a strong bear hug. Ruby broke and the tears flowed once more, this time stronger than before as she sank to her knees. Boomer stood there awkwardly, unsure of what to do.

Jaune went over to the sisters and tapped their shoulders. Yang was the one to look up, and Jaune flinched as her eyes flashed crimson.

He'd nearly frozen time when she let out a huff, her eyes receding back to lilac as well.

"You're lucky you have friends to back you up, or else I'd kick your ass." She muttered, pulling Ruby closer to her.

"To be fair, the only reason I fought you all was because I was attacked first." Jaune replied. "Plus, I seemed to handle you just fine on my own."

Yang glared at him before standing, pulling Ruby up with her. She led her into the back room where the rest all waited. He heard some murmuring coming from the room, but was distracted when Snatcher came up to him with a cardboard box in her hands. With a quick words of thanks, Jaune took the box from her and set it down on the ground. He opened it up to reveal several magazines for his AUG and his .45 TRCK.

Slotting the magazines into their respective pouches on his plate carrier and belt, he loaded the magazine that he was using before with some fresh loose rounds, filling it to capacity before slotting it into his gun and priming it.

Both of his weapons were loaded now with the usual fire-shock hybrid aura penetrating rounds, or fire-shock APR for short.

He pulled up the holo-map on his watch and quickly marked a path that would lead him to the main room as quickly as possible. He took off, quickly speeding his way through the building. There was no resistance, no enemies in sight, save for the numerous dead bodies that littered the floor.

Jaune vaulted over an upturned table and immediately dropped to the floor to slide, passing under a fallen file cabinet held up by two more file cabinets.

He sprung to his feet and continued running, periodically slowing down to check down hallways. After a few minutes of running, Jaune heard the sounds of footsteps, and immediately reached up to his comms.

"Jager, this is Oracle. I'm on approach to your location. Be cautious of friendly fire, over."

The radio crackled, and Jasmine's voice came over the line. "Roger that, Oracle. Are those your footsteps we're hearing, over?"

"Affirmative."

"Roger that. We'll hold up until you arrive, out."

Jaune sighed, running further ahead. He peeked out of a corner and saw four people, all in a crouched position with two facing him and two facing away. He held out his left wrist, showing his glowing orange watch.

"Oracle, reporting in!" He called out, and one of the two people facing him beckoned him over. Jaune jogged over to them, passing the two people facing the hallway he'd come, and patted Faye on the back to signal his arrival. He glanced back at the two other agents, X-Ray and Springer.

X-Ray was a very tall, lanky woman, and though she was crouched at the moment, Jaune knew that she was taller than him by quite a few inches. She wore black clothing, a shell-jacket and a pair of dark denim jeans, with a dark colored chest rig. Her face was concealed by a black ski-mask, with a pair of dark M-frames. She gave Jaune a curt nod once she saw him glancing her way.

Springer, the other agent, was a lean man with an average stature. He wore an orange hazmat suit with black accents on it, along with a black armor plate carrier and black knee-pads and elbow-pads. For headgear, he wore a black beanie and an air filtration mask that was standard issue among Division agents. He gave Jaune a small wave, before refocusing on watching for movement.

Jaune turned back to Faye and saw that she was pulling up a holo-map on her watch, as well as a separate window that appeared to be some kind of report. She called everyone else over to her, and they gathered around.

She pointed at the main room.

"So here's what we got. A few thugs came into the building by mixing in with the other refugees. Then, once the JTF switched their guards for the afternoon, they let in the other thugs through the front entrance once they overpowered the officers," she explained, pulling up a separate window that played video footage from earlier that day. "From what we could gather, they were planning on taking this place over for themselves. More than likely, this is just the tip of the fucking iceberg, and we should expect a sizable amount of reinforcements coming soon."

Faye then proceeded to bring up an image, some kind of emblem comprised of a lightning bolt overlaying a human skull, with an orange flame behind them as a background.

"These fuckers are part of the Strykers, a new gang on the block that sprung up only about a year ago. They may be new, but they are easily one of the leading street gangs in Vale City. They have a lot of guys, and in a lot of places, and with their leader, Jade Stryker, being ex-military, we should expect a decent amount of resistance with some form of military tactics on their end."

Jaune sighed, already feeling the pain he'd be experiencing in a few minutes. He loudly muttered the thought that was in everyone's mind.

"This is going to be one hell of a shit show."

 **A/N: Guess who's back? For a little while at least. Like I stated above, this thing is going really slow for me, and I'm seriously considering going to a counselor or something for the amount of shit going through my head. Anyway, some of you guys might be wondering, "IU13, you cheeky little bastard, why didn't you continue on with the personal conversations between Jaune and his friends?" Well, that wasn't exactly the plan from the start. To be honest, I wasn't really hoping to go anywhere with these conversations, except to maybe strengthen his relationship with the more icy members of RWBY. And, let's be honest, Jaune isn't exactly in any position to offer that third option, now is he? He's not a commander or anything like that. Team RWBY and (J)NPR will have to prove that they can become Division agents if they want to, and what better way through a trial by fire?**

 **Yes, I'm thinking of having team RWBY and (J)NPR join the fight, and, taking the advice of one of the reviews, I'd like to hear what you guys think of that. So, if you guys want to leave your thoughts on it, feel free to PM or leave a review if you'd like.**

 **Anyways, this was chapter 11, and I'm really sorry that it took so long to get out. I wish you ladies and gents a wonderful day/evening, and I hope to see you next time.**

 **IU13, signing out!**


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